It has been almost a year since the worldwide launch of World of Warcraft’s expansion Wrath of the Lich King, but the China hub, hosted by NetEase, has yet to implement it. No surprise there, true, but if the company wishes not to end up the way executives of The9, the game’s previous license holder, did, it is highly recommended they just agree with whatever the Chinese governments wants to implement in the game so it can be patched … asap!
An official of China’s Ministry of Culture told online games portal 17173 recently that they were still reviewing NetEase’s application …read more

There is talk that NetEase, the current license holder in China of the highly successful World of Warcraft franchise, is encountering difficulty in getting the Wrath of the Lich King expansion past censors.
World of Warcraft’s previous China-based licensee, The9, had similar issues hounding the game’s update. In February 2009, The9 issued a statement denying rumors that the launch of Wrath of the Lich King would be postponed indefinitely.
In April, Blizzard Entertainment, developer of World of Warcraft, granted the license to the game to NetEase. The only thing left unchanged is the status of Wrath of the Lich King with China’s …read more

If the latest online games industry news from China is to be believed, then all I can say is, “What in the Nine Hells happened?”
Check out the headline on China-based online games portal 17173:
The9 May Have Lost Control of World of Warcraft in China
Late yesterday, multiple sources reported that The9, the operator of World of Warcraft in China, had broken up with Blizzard Entertainment. NetEase, another Chinese game operator, is more likely to get the license instead, which will take over the operation of World of Warcraft in China this June.

The site goes on to say that it got it …read more

To publish or operate an online game in China, a company needs to secure a publication number from the General Administration of Press and Publication. Of course, the government has to first review and approve whatever it is an online games operator wants to publish. Without this approval, a massively multiplayer online game can’t be launched.
Patches, expansions and updates undergo a similar procedure, and it is in this that The9 is having problems, particularly in its bid to get approval for Wrath of the Lich King, an expansion for the highly successful Blizzard Entertainment franchise, World of Warcraft.

The9 has received …read more

At the end of 2008, The9, operator in China of the hit Western massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft, was plagued by news that a bootleg copy of its latest update, Wrath of the Lich King, had somehow made it to the Internet.
The issue ended in a positive note, with The9 issuing a clarification that the Internet links that supposedly pointed to the Wrath of the Lich King client had been removed and that the Chinese government was still reviewing the content of the World of Warcraft update.
Now, rumors are again hounding The9, this time on the supposed …read more

Officials of The9, operator of the renowned Blizzard creation World of Warcraft in China, are baffled over the appearance on the Internet of download links to a supposed copy of the Chinese client of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The9 has yet to release the client pending review and approval of the government.
Here’s the juicy tidbit from online games portal 17173:
The Chinese client of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King surfaced on the Internet on December 25. Blizzard and The9, the Chinese operator of WoW said they were investigating the case.
The download links to the …read more