World of Warcaft Problems in China

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It is no secret that World of Warcraft is facing some problems in China, in terms of being able to stay operational over there. News coming up recently and over the span of a couple of months has shown that Blizzard is struggling to keep their franchise alive over there. But how is this effecting the company?

Blizzard is an enormous company, especially after the merger with Activision, and it rakes in a lot of money as it is. World of Warcraft boasts some of the greatest numbers of players on an online game, possibly the greatest amount of all time. But with talk of China trying to ban World of Warcraft in their area, how many of the players will be torn away from their game and subscription due to the governmental choice? How much of the population of World of Warcraft players do the Chinese account for?

News has been released recently regarding World of Warcraft missing approval for operation in China. The situation basically is that the Government of Press and Publication claims Blizzard broke too many national regulations, and that the game will have to cease operation at once. Saying that all current subscriptions must be canceled and that all further membership creations must be halted, the game should be shut down. Though, there is a report saying that NetEase, the company that operates the game, has not been contacted in regards to this decision yet. Which makes sense, since the Ministry of Culture says that the GAPP does not have the power to completely shut the game down, and that the shut down should only apply to the Burning Crusade.

This probably saddening news for Blizzard, as it would be for any company, since this is effectively taking out a whole section of their player base. This certainly means that they are losing a chunk of money, whether a majority of their players or Chinese or not. They are losing on both an established and potential audience. Though it is not known how much this will affect Blizzard, it is certainly an annoyance for them to deal with. Since the Chinese government is clearly against the release and operation of World of Warcraft there.

For those of you who are Chinese players, people are recommending that you play under a proxy. But if you can not manage to do that, I do not know what to say but I feel sorry that you have to miss out on playing one of the best mmorpg franchises available. World of Warcraft is a great game, a source of addiction for some, and it would be great if the situation works out for you guys.