It's taken more than two months and an extended beta to test the servers of their new providers, but Chinese players have finally been re-admitted to the realm of Azeroth. While Activision Blizzard changed Internet operators in China from The9 to NetEase on June 7, Chinese players have been shut out of World of Warcraft for an extended period of time, presumably because of rigorous content edits and government inspection in the country. According to Gamasutra, the official Chinese website for WoW has been opened as well for new accounts, and players that purchased game time before the prolonged outage will still be able to use their time without penalty. Veterans of WoW in China that have particular stats or meet specific criteria will receive a unique pet for their inconvenience.
The test currently for Activision Blizzard, of course, is how many people they will retain because of the extended outage. Estimates claimed that NetEase spend 1 million yuan (or more than $146,000) per day maintaining closed beta game servers since July 30 in preparation for the re-launch of the game. With additional estimates about half of WoW's user base being Chinese, it will remain to be seen how many players will return to their characters, and how many of them have potentially moved on during the hiatus.
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The test currently for Activision Blizzard, of course, is how many people they will retain because of the extended outage. Estimates claimed that NetEase spend 1 million yuan (or more than $146,000) per day maintaining closed beta game servers since July 30 in preparation for the re-launch of the game. With additional estimates about half of WoW's user base being Chinese, it will remain to be seen how many players will return to their characters, and how many of them have potentially moved on during the hiatus.
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