Update On Netease and World of Warcraft in China
In a post last week on Netease ($NTES) I quoted Chinese press reports saying that on January 17 Chinese government regulators would announce penalties for Netease and its “unapproved” launch of World of Warcraft. That did not happen. The GAPP’s annual online game conference just concluded, and not only was there no news of a resolution of the regulatory concerns surrounding Netease and its operation of WOW, but in fact Netease CEO did not even attend the conference.
GAPP did announce that 2009 revenue for China’s online game industry was an impressive 25.6B RMB (3.75B USD), up 39% from 2008. GAPP also announced that it will support overseas exports of Chinese games while strengthening controls preventing foreign participation in China’s massive online game industry. At least the government is upfront that they are practicing real mercantilism when it comes to virtual worlds. As I wrote earlier, this protectionism may very well became a source of friction between the US and China in 2010.
Related posts:
- Shanda Games Buys Mochi Media; Are US Game Companies Ready For The Chinese?
- “网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction” — Are World of Warcraft’s Travails In China Much More Interesting Than Google’s?
- Is GAPP About To Drop The Hammer On Netease and World Of Warcraft?
- New Report On China’s Online Game Industry-$3.6B in 2009 Revenue, $9.2B By 2014
- ”网瘾战争 War of Internet Addiction” Wins Top Prize at 2010 Tudou Film Festival
[...] the requirement that skulls be removed from World of Warcraft (hence the Skull Party), the bureaucratic battles between GAPP and the Ministry of Culture over the re-approval of WoW in China, the money-obsessed [...]
[...] the requirement that skulls be removed from World of Warcraft (hence the Skull Party), the bureaucratic battles between GAPP and the Ministry of Culture over the re-approval of WoW in China, the money-obsessed [...]