No World Of Warcraft For China…….. Again

Posted by bilingue | 2 comments

World of Warcraft had a lot of problems lately in China.  Blizzard’s expansion is on halt and can’t find the green light to publish Wrath of the Lich King in China.  The game suffered graphical changes to comply with the new Chinese regulations in games.  What changes exactly?  For starters, every skeleton in the game was removed and replaced with something different and less “grotesque” to avoid upsetting the Chinese population; among other minor changes.  After all, China does not produce violent, gory, bloody media like movies.

According to Reuters, the new version lacks approval and NetEase was ordered to stop operating the popular title.   They also demanded that Netease suspend charging users to play the game and to stop allowing players the creation of new accounts.

The agency is also evaluating whether to impose administrative penalties on Shanghai EaseNet, the NetEase affiliate, and that the agency was returning the affiliate’s application for approval, NetEase said.

NetEase and Shanghai EaseNet said they believe they are in full compliance with applicable Chinese laws and that they are seeking clarification from the relevant authorities regarding the statement by the General Administration of Press and Publication.

NetEas licenses the online multiplayer game World of Warcraft from Activision Blizzard

-Reuters

This will definitely affect Blizzard Activision and hurt the proud number of active accounts they hold.