World of Warcraft launches in China
Blizzard's vastly successful massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft has been commercially launched in China, with a new business model in place to meet the challenges of the large but difficult Chinese market.
Blizzard's vastly successful massively multiplayer game World of Warcraft has been commercially launched in China, with a new business model in place to meet the challenges of the large but difficult Chinese market.
The launch follows an extremely successful open beta period for WoW in China, which at some points saw 500,000 players using the servers simultaneously, and will be the fourth major territory for the game following launches in North America, Europe and South Korea.
Rather than going it alone in the unique Chinese market, Blizzard has entered into a partnership with The9, a major operator of massively multiplayer games in China. The9 will be involved in assisting in the development and localisation of the game in the region, as well as operating in-game and call-centre 24 hour support for Chinese players.
The biggest difference between this launch and other international launches, however, is the pricing and security structure which Blizzard has developed specifically for the Chinese market.
Under this system, players will be able to download World of Warcraft and then activate their accounts by purchasing an authorised CD key for 30 Yuan (around 3 Euro). Instead of a monthly subscription, players will buy World of Warcraft Points Card, which also costs 30 Yuan, holds 600 points and allows around 67 hours of play at 9 points per hour.
"It has always been a goal at Blizzard to become a major developer and publisher for the Chinese gaming market," according to Blizzard president Mike Morhaime,.
"We feel that China offers a huge and eager audience and it is poised to become the next great region in gaming. We are simply thrilled to be bringing World of Warcraft to this great country," he continued.
World of Warcraft already has around 1.5 million subscribers worldwide spread between North America, Europe and South Korea, and a launch is also currently planned in Taiwan, one of the biggest markets in the world for online games, in partnership with local firm Soft-World International.