Blizzard, NetEase to Offer World of Warcraft in China
Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard, and
NetEase.com, a China-based Internet technology company, say that
Blizzard's World of Warcraft will be licensed to an affiliated company
of NetEase in mainland China. It’ll be for a period of 3 years following
the expiration of the current license agreement.
Both
companies had also announced a partnership on Blizzard’s Warcraft III,
StarCraft II, and Battle.net gaming platform last summer.
Last year, Blizzard Entertainment had introduced
Russian-language
version of World of Warcraft, which is a subscription-based massively
multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). It allowed European players to buy
the game and its expansion: The Burning Crusade, which is localized for
Russia. Gamers could also begin playing on dedicated realms with
Russian-language support.
This
was the fifth European-language version of World of Warcraft, after the
English, French, German, and Spanish versions.
Now,
it’s being promoted for gamers in China.
"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.
"By
combining Blizzard Entertainment's expertise in developing world-class
games with NetEase's strength in online-game operation in China, I am
confident that we will be able to deliver the best gaming experiences in
the world to our players," says William Ding, CEO of NetEase.
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