Gamasutra this morning reported Warcraft's return to China, noting that Activision's switch from local operator The9 to NetEase on June 7 will have its costs. NetEase has had to spend 1 million yuan - about $146,000 U.S. - each day of a closed beta that has been running since July 30.

The transition and the downtime have been costly to both Activision Blizzard and NetEase. According to media claims, NetEase has spent an estimated 1 million yuan ($146,455.77) per day maintaining game servers for the closed beta it's been running since July 30 as a test period. That's basically $7.3 million U.S.

Further, half of World of Warcraft's global installation base of 11.5 million is estimated to be from China, and it remains to be seen just how many stick with the MMO after such a long absence. One analyst however, believes that because of the restrictions in the Chinese market, they account for just 6 percent of Activision Blizzard's revenues from Warcraft.

The holdup was attributed to enhanced scrutiny by Chinese regulators and some content changes, which we wrote about back in August. On that score, NetEase also reports that a Chinese localization of Wrath of Lich King has been finished and submitted to the government for approval.

World of Warcraft Restarts Commercial Operations in China [Gamasutra via VG247]

The9's service closed down on June 7. It was supposed to be a direct handover, but when The9 stopped running, NetEase's service didn't kick in. And still hasn't kicked in, despite company reps and Blizzard working "around the clock" to get it working.

People here complain when Xbox Live is down for a day. That's nothing! This is a lot of Chinese people without their World of Warcraft (though many have simply migrated to Taiwanese servers), and they haven't had it for weeks. Surprised blood hasn't been spilled in the streets by now.

World of Warcraft Languishes Offline in China [Yahoo! Tech, via VE3D]

And sounds a lot like World of Warcraft, as the game's name is World of Fight. Oh, and the game's website is www.wofchina.com, only one letter off the official Chinese World of Warcraft URL, which is www.wowchina.com.

Far be it from us to accuse the The9 of engineering their own cheap Chinese knock-off here, but...OK, we will accuse them. Just look at that logo and colour scheme above, from the game's teaser website! Shameless.

World of Warcraft, Meet World of Fight [Wall Street Journal]

UPDATE - Some commenters have pointed out that the above picture looks a lot like a Chaos Gate, from Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The9 need a replacement MMO for WoW, and EA (who publish Warhammer Online) own shares in The9. Draw your own conclusions from that.

Last summer Blizzard announced a partnership with NetEase to operate StarCraft II, Warcraft III, and Battle.net in mainland China, so it really comes as no surprise that they sign a three-year agreement with the company to operate World of Warcraft as well, with The9's contract expiring soon..

"We appreciate the enthusiasm that Chinese gamers have shown us over the years, and we've always worked hard, in collaboration with our partners, to ensure that these players receive the same high-quality service and gameplay experiences that we deliver in other regions," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "This new agreement with NetEase will support that goal for years to come, and we look forward to collaborating with them on a smooth transition for World of Warcraft moving forward."

The9 issued a corresponding statement this morning, announcing that the company had learned of Blizzard's intentions to switch operators once their contract had ended. One can only imagine how depressing this news must be for them.

The9 Limited Announces Equity Investment in G10 Entertainment

SHANGHAI, China, April 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY) ("The9"), a leading online game operator in China, today announced an equity investment in G10 Entertainment Corp. ("G10"), a leading game developer in Korea. Under the terms of the investment, The9 has acquired a minority stake in G10 in exchange for a cash investment of approximately US$38 million.

Mr. Jun Zhu, The9's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "G10 Entertainment is a leading game developer, especially in the advanced casual game arena. Its Audition game franchise enjoys high popularity and a strong user base in China. The9's equity investment in G10 will strengthen the existing partnership between the two companies and further motivate G10 to provide the best support to The9's operation of Audition 2 in mainland China."

Mr. Kee Young Kim, the Chief Executive Officer of G10, said, "We are very excited that The9 becomes one of our key investors as we see this equity infusion as a recognition of G10's achievements in developing games and creating entertainment content. The9's outstanding game operation expertise will be a huge advantage in bringing G10's products to the growing Chinese online game market. We also look forward to learning from The9's valuable experience gleaned from the day-to-day operation in the local market, and integrating the ideas and suggestions from The9 into our game development process. Our people and teams at G10 are empowered to continue delivering high-quality game products and providing our best support to Audition 2, our prize product to be operated by The9 in mainland China."

World of Warcraft Hits Record One Million Concurrent Chinese Players [GameDaily]

It is a very sad story. Both the victim and perpetrator are not from affluent families, are not particularly well-educated, and didn't appear to have great prospects in Chinese society. World of Warcraft, operated by The9 (Nasdaq:NCTY) in China, and other MMOs are a great escape, as is obvious from the tens of millions of Chinese playing in these virtual worlds.

Good thing for Blizzard and The9 that China's legal system is still developing. If this happened in the US no doubt the victim's family would hire an ambulance chasing lawyer to sue Blizzard for millions, claiming that somehow Blizzard, rather than the parents, was negligent.

According to an article in the Beijing News [新京報], the 'fire mage' purchased gasoline 5 days prior to the event, which sort of takes the edge off that 'spur of the moment' idea. Furthermore, the interview a Beijing News reporter had with the 'fire mage' was downright disturbing in parts - nothing like sound bites like "[the feeling of watching fire and people burning] is very addictive, very happy!" to make someone come off as perfectly sane. And all this over a schoolyard fight between 17 year olds.

模仿"魔兽"火烧同学 [Beijing News via billsdue]

I admit my first reaction was '... Aren't there plenty of Chinese servers to play on?' and thought that perhaps this would provide a good testing ground for the theory that MMOs help language acquisition (joking, joking). In all honesty, this just seems like one of those things that happens when you live on the Mainland - the 'great firewall of China' is nothing to sneeze at and it's amazing what gets blocked, what doesn't, what kind of gets blocked/kind of doesn't, etc. Welcome to the enigma that is modern China? I'm also not seeing the benefit of the government from blocking all access to US servers - the first thing that popped into my mind was RMT/gold farming, but that doesn't have much to do with the expat population that can't hack an MMORPG in Chinese. Any Kotakuites living in China who have experienced this (or not), feel free to drop us an email.

Zhao Yurun, deputy director of The9's marketing and public relations department, told Interfax that reports of any free-to-play plans for WoW were "speculation" and "rumor" on the part of media and gamers, despite the quotes from The9's CEO. Zhao declined to comment further.

Rumors were fueled after Giant Interactive, another Chinese company, went public in the US. Gamers' responses were mixed, with many expressing concern over a potential micro-transaction model, fearing it would wind up being more expensive than a straight up subscription pricing scheme. Whatever the actual motivation behind The9's contradictory comments, I'd be pretty surprised if WoW went for a free to play model - at least, until player numbers start dropping.

The9 denies WoW free-to-play plans, contradicts CEO's comments [Interfax China]

"The purchase of MSN China's stake is part of The9's strategic layout. It is aimed at to build up a cross-business platform just like the one of Tecent Group, which is covering instant messaging, cyber game, online communities, and online auction," says spokesperson of The9.

Besides new deal, in March this year, The9 also joined hands with Microsoft on XBOX 360. However, the two parties did disclose the detail about the cooperation.

Insiders close to the company say that their cooperation focuses on the software platform of XBOX online games. For this purpose, The9 has founded a special video game department.

I'll be interested to see if this impacts The9's market share at all; I wouldn't personally want to have to compete with Shanda for domination of the Mainland gaming scene.

The9 to Buy Stake of MSN China [Trading Markets]

Although World of Warcraft was launched in China six month after the game's launch in Western markets, previous content update releases usually lag North American market releases by a month. Chinese WoW players have not experienced any new content since last October, and their patience has been taxed to the limit. The number of average concurrent users (ACU) for WoW has dropped two quarters straight, from 340,000 ACU in the forth quarter of 2006 to 300,000 in the second quarter of 2007.

Some of the speculation is that the new anti-addiction measures (and the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) that administers said measures) held up approval for the game. Regardless, Chinese WoW fans should be placated soon.

The China Angle: Putting The Wow Back In WoW [Gamasutra]

Teddy Liu, Greater China communications director of Blizzard, told Xinhua on Thursday that he had not received any official information on the suit, and had only read media reports.

He said he could not comment at the moment.

Damages could be calculated either by the defendant's interests that were illegally gained via copyright infringement or by the plaintiff's losses according to Chinese law, said the statement from Founder Electronics.

It claimed WoW had 7.5 million active player accounts and hence the infringement of copyright was "serious".

"The lost earnings of one billion yuan was a conservative estimate," the statement said.

I'd love to know how they arrive at these numbers, and I'm curious to see what the outcome of the suit is - these 'conservative' totals for damages seem rather inflated at best, but then, I'm not a lawyer.

Chinese firm making "interim" damages claim for 100 mln yuan from Blizzard [Xinhua]

Hu Jintao, Chinese president, has called for action to 'purify' the internet of anything that might affect 'national cultural information security' or undermine his attempt to promote a 'harmonious society'.

I'm not sure what in the hell bare-boned skeletons have to do with 'national cultural information security' and/or promoting a 'harmonious society,' but what Beijing wants, Beijing gets. Chinese WoW players are angry about the change, and no one's really sure why skeletons in WoW have gotten facelifts while nothing has been done in any other game operating in China.

Censorship reaches internet skeletons [Gulfnews via QJ.net]

The agreement of course strengthens EA's online presence in the Asian market, while at the same time giving The9 exclusive rights to FIFA Online in China, which, if the success of the game in Korea is any indicator, is pretty much the equivalent of writing them a blank check and saying, "Go crazy." It has the potential to become one of the biggest games in China, beating out the current favorite, World of Warcraft - also run locally by The9.

Oh come on, gold farming totally counts as playing! Michael Fahey

EA and The9 Announce Equity Investment and Exclusive Publishing Agreement for EA SPORTS FIFA Online in Mainland China

Strategic Partnership With The9 to Expand EA's Offering in China's Online Gaming Market

SHANGHAI, CHINA & REDWOOD CITY, CALIF., May 21 /CNW/ - Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS), the world's leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment, today announced an equity investment in one of China's largest online game operators, The9 Limited (NASDAQ:NCTY) ("The9"). The two companies also announced a licensing agreement that gives The9 exclusive publishing rights for EA SPORTS FIFA Online in mainland China. Upon completion of the equity investment, EA will own approximately 15 percent of the common shares of The9. The investment is roughly US$167 million.

The agreement builds on EA's strategy of partnering with proven regional operators to bring online games to Asia, and The9's strategy of expanding its game product offerings in the Chinese market.

EA SPORTS FIFA is EA's leading international sports franchise and is seeing early online success in Asia. Last year, EA and Seoul-based Neowiz partnered to launch EA SPORTS FIFA Online in Korea, now one of Korea's most popular games, consistently ranked among top performers with more than 4.4 million registered subscribers. The9 has exclusive publishing rights for the game in mainland China.

"EA will be a strong partner for us in the rapidly expanding online game market in China," said Jun Zhu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The9. "We are seeing strong interest in online sports games in China with the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics and the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and FIFA Online is set to be a top favorite in the Chinese market."

Hubert Larenaudie, President, EA Asia Online, said, "This is another significant step in EA's strategy to build an online presence in Asia. The9's proven expertise will be a tremendous advantage in bringing FIFA Online to a growing market and we look forward to partnering with them to bring the best online football gaming experience to millions of Chinese gamers and football fans."

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