EA Invades Asia Via The9?

Did they? Didn’t they? Will they? Won’t they?
Electronic Arts seems to be playing the denial game with a recent rumour that it had gobbled up a 19% stake in Asian MMO company The9, an outfit responsible for the distribution of none other than World of Warcraft for the region.

Gamasutra had earlier reported that the publishing giant was to make such a move, based on a report citing the Shanghai Securities News, an official Chinese government newspaper. EA’s interest stemmed from difficulties in navigating the governmental red-tape that has been dogging distribution of the company’s other titles (eg. FIFA Online) in China. Minority stake in the high profile distributor may help to smooth over bureaucratic programs, and open the thus-far befuddling Asian market to EA’s iron fist.

EA has since denied the purchase, stating that “there is no signed agreement with The9″. That rather open-ended response begs to have a “…yet” attached to it, and considering the appointment of Hubert Larenaudie (formerly of Vivendi Universal Games, which has dealings with The9) to the EA Asia presidency, perhaps EA is just being avoidant until the deal is finalized and inked.