Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

World of Warcraft awaits China's approval to relaunch

The game has already been offline for six weeks as it switches local operators

The relaunch of the popular online game World of Warcraft in China, where it has already been offline for six weeks, still faces an indefinite delay as it awaits government approval for its content.

Problems for Blizzard Entertainment, the game's creator, started when it switched to a new local operator for World of Warcraft in China, online gaming company NetEase. New operators of foreign games have to submit the games for government approval, and China has objected to some of the content it found in its latest review of World of Warcraft.

The state agency vetting the game will soon complete the first round of the process, but the game will have to be resubmitted with some content changes to receive approval, an employee at the official General Administration of Press and Publication said by phone Monday. The game did not pass the first round of review because its content has changed since The9, Blizzard's former Chinese partner, last gained clearance to operate the game, the employee said.

The employee declined to say what changes must be made or when the game could receive final approval.

A statement on World of Warcraft's official Chinese Web site said the game had not changed from before the hand-over, suggesting that any content changes since its last official approval occurred under its former operator.

A Blizzard spokeswoman declined to comment.

World of Warcraft and other online games are extremely popular in China, where young males congregate in Internet bars to play them for hours or nights at a time. Local media put the number of World of Warcraft players in China at 5 million. The game has 11.5 million subscribers worldwide, according to Blizzard.

The game has been modified to meet the Chinese government's demands before. Skeletons added to the game in an update overseas appeared with flesh in China.

Government objections have also prevented the China release of Wrath of the Lich King, the game's latest expansion. The expansion twice failed to gain government approval despite content revisions, possibly due to elements like the "death knight" character class, according to local media.

World of Warcraft's Chinese servers have been offline since June 7, when The9's operating license expired.

Netease could not immediately be reached for comment.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Blizzard, Blizzard Entertainment

Comments

1

Anonymous

Mon 27/07/2009 - 16:39

they right in a way...

At least I'm not alone at being offended by the deathknight classes lack of proper Nerf's. In the strategy game it was never a class but a near god like immortal that should have never been playable in an mmo. It is a disgrace to the storyline of the game.

2

Barbara

Mon 07/09/2009 - 14:27

Nice

Actually I have spent lot of time with games. In other words i love to play the games. This site gives me suggestion about gamer’s situation. Helped me lot.
Elenora
<a href="http://mymmoshop.com/buy/world-of-warcraft-us/gold/index.php">Buy WoW Gold</a>

3

Buy WoW Gold

Mon 07/09/2009 - 14:31

Nice

I think I just found out what I am looking for after spending a lot time surfing the net. I am very happy to post my comment in this blog. I gathered lot of information from this site. Nice blog.
Elenora
<a href="http://mymmoshop.com/buy/world-of-warcraft-us/gold/index.php"rel="dofollow">Buy WoW Gold</a>

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: blizzard, censorship, China, world of warcraft
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Automating Your Processes to Outperform Your Competition
    Welcome to Volume Three of the “Intelligent Guide to Enterprise BPM.” Get ready for an education in automation—Process Automation, that is. This white paper goes into detail about the Process Automation entry point into an Enterprise Business Process Management (BPM) program. Read on to learn how Process Automation opens up new ways to help your business do things faster—like open up a new sales channel or deliver customer orders. Discover how Process Automation enables your business to run smoother and consistently in an orchestrated way. With a true Enterprise BPM solution, you can automate newly designed processes far easier than starting from scratch.
    Learn more »
  • Teleworking made simple—and secure—with desktop virtualisation technology
    Businesses of all sizes are increasingly focused on creating flexible work environments and offering telework options for employees. By administering policies and providing the technical capability for employees to work remotely, these companies can improve job satisfaction and worker attraction and retention. This paper explores the implementation of teleworking based on a foundation of desktop and server virtualisation.
    Learn more »
  • Server and Storage Optimization Techniques
    By meeting the requirements to deploy new applications and support a larger number of internal and external customers, IT organizations are facing a space, power, and cooling crunch. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments