World of Warcraft may finally get go-ahead in China
World of Warcraft future might be getting brighter in China. A feud between regulators has left the popular massively mulitplayer online game on the sidelines since mid-September.
Blizzard Entertainment has kept the game operating in recent months despite a dispute with the Chinese agency overseeing online games. The fate of the game is a big deal, since WoW has four million users in China. China’s General Administration of Press and Publications agency and the Ministry of Culture have reportedly come to an agreement about whether NetEase, which operates the game on behalf of Activision Blizzard’s Blizzard Entertainment division in China, has been operating with a proper license or not.
The story in an online journal said that an unnamed insider claimed the two sides agreed that regulations were broken and a punishment will be announced in mid-January. Lots of rumors have surfaced alleging Chinese officials wanted bribes, but no one has verified that. GAPP told NetEase in September to stop charging for WoW accounts and stopped a review of the WoW expansion pack, the Burning Crusade.
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About the Author, Dean Takahashi
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
