China's income would take a massive hit if they didn't allow the online gold farmers into Wow. That and crappy cheap parts/assembly lines make up most of thier economy.
Mists of Pandaria approved for China
By
Laura Parker, Associate Editor
Latest World of Warcraft expansion approved by Chinese Ministry of Culture; release date in region TBC.
Chinese internet company NetEase Inc has received approval from the Chinese government for the release of the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria.
Reuters reports that World of Warcraft is a stable source of income for NetEase, who operates the Blizzard title in China.
According to the report, the Chinese Ministry of Culture approved the release of Mists of Pandaria in China, although a local release date for the game is yet to be decided.
In 2009, the Chinese General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) revoked NetEase's permit to operate World of Warcraft in China, as well as rejecting the company's application to localize the first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.
However, NetEase later secured permission to localize and release The Burning Crusade.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be released globally on September 25.
In addition to the English version, Mists of Pandaria will be localised into Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Russian, Korean, traditional Chinese, and Italian.
By
Laura Parker, Associate Editor
Laura Parker is the Associate Editor of GameSpot Australia. She loves adventure games, sparkly stuff, Trivial Pursuit, cake, Master Chief, earthworms, and rhetorical questions. She once stole a sandwich from Peter Molyneux.
53 comments
I quit WoW when they released the patch with the pandaria expansion changes and I thought it sucked really bad and I have been playing since about 1 hour after wow launched.I have seen them make changes through the years and some were good and others not so goo,but when Cataclysm arrived it got really bad as the changes made the classes I played feel different not as smooth and fluid as they once were among other issues.The changes for Mop were even worse and the game felt like it had just recieved its new game enhancements like Star Wars Galaxies did and that was enough for me to close shop and move on.
The game has been a blast the entire time I have been there a combonation of age and gameplay changes though have changed the "experience" and "immersion" it once had been since the day after the patch since I played and have not missed it at all.I have found more time to play the probably 30-35 console titles I have purchased through the years on multiple platforms and really enjoying them they are new to me he he:P I have a real gut feeling the sales of mop in North America will be lower than expected and there will continue to be a loss of subs over the next couple years.Blizzard is wise to make an expansion that will appeal more to the Chinese good buisness decision and could grow subs over there.I think this is their real plan with the changes the regulars were growing bored and leaving so they made a buisness decision to try and make $$$ more power to them.
@JasPlun In contrast...i quit GW2 SWTOR RIFT and a few more MMO's to come back to wow again after 1 year.. and I can actually SMELL Orgrimaar!
It is a wonderful feeling and a huge nostalgia to me. The core gameplay mechanics of all the other MMO's is nothing compared to Wow's.
The main thing i was looking for in other games for a better or similar core gameplay with a new story.. but alas they all fcked it up and so i am back to Wow for good.
The Core mechanics that I talk about the is time between each single attack or defense maneuver. All other MMO's are a click fest whereas in WOW you are given enough time to strategically click the right button at the right time which gives me immense control over what I am doing and what I should be doing in a fight. All other games, take for instance GW2 that i was playing since 2 months now.. go to WvW and all you see is special effects. You can't even see yourself in a huge fight. You just click button because they are avaiable and the cooldown time dictates your actions ...in WOW cooldown time is a strategy that you control not the game.
All other games have this missing "Giving Control to the Player on the Cooldown TImers Strategy" .. none of them have done it even close to what Wow has done.
My good friend, when you go to other games you will surely realize this and will so terribly miss it that you will come back and SMELL Orgimmar again.
i dont like wow but i dont play guild wars 2. not planning on it cause its kinda hard for me to stick with an mmo :/. i try, i really do...
No crap sherlock. of course they approve it. its freakin pandas,china's number one animal!
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@buccomatic GW2 has sold 2 million copies so far. Definitely pretty decent, although I was expecting a lot more based off the amount of people talking about it. The problem I have with the game is I don't care for the style of play and the end content. I could look past all that if it weren't for one very important thing. The security. The company does NOT have the tools to get back missing items or characters. So if you're hacked or accidentally deleted something, you're screwed. Imagine putting all that work into a character, getting hacked and then the company saying, sorry, we can't do anything about it. That's absolutely ridiculous and a huge red flag for me. If people had known this upon release, the numbers would have been worse. Makes you wonder if they did it on purpose. But people are starting to find out, so it will affect sales moving forward for sure. The game IMO is only good short term. I can't see most people playing this for a year. They have nothing to fall back on. Which is why being free is going to SAVE them.
1 Like Why would anyone live there? Let alone a billion people? Freedom rocks! HOORAY FOR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICS!!!!
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Remember that comedian who said how strange it must be to work in China?
What do you do, Chow?
Oh, I work at the silly hat factory. We also make fingercuffs.
2 Like approved what? Sorry, I was too busy playing Guild Wars 2. As a matter of fact, see ya!
@theR34p3R @fredwv like cod..... GW2 is good tho but all the people who play it reject every other mmo like mindless cod players
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1 Like @Tripwolf Actually China is really against its culture being represented like that. They refuse to allow anything that deals with the past but does not follow it very accurately out. For example: time travel is an illegal topic because it is disrespectful to the past.
1 Like @kingcole225 @Tripwolf Though if I recall correctly, wasn't Kung-fu Panda one of the highest grossing films of all time in China?
1 Like @kingcole225 @Tripwolf Wait, what?!? You mean kung-fu pandas DIDN'T really exist? No way.
1 Like @kingcole225 @Tripwolf LOL almost as funny as the words "freedom" and "free speech" are blocked from the internet in china
Why would they not? Otherwise they would have had to cop a lot of bad publicity that would have spot lighted their human rights issues...
This news means nothing to me, never played or will play WoW. I put Wow players in the same boat as Mac users and Iphone users. Zombies who grab ankle while smiling as they take it from their over-hyped overlords.
2 Like THANK GOODNESS! I don't know what I would have done if China didn't have their WoW! America might have very well crumbled, but thanks to this good news, order may yet be restored!
7 Like People still play WoW? -_-. Bot hacker infested game now days=/. Guild Wars 2 is where it is now:). Sorrrryyy..I got to get these WoW nerd rage fanboys going:). It's always so funny to hear them talk about how they think nothing can touch their holy WoW. -_-.
1 Like @Snowx1 So you admit you are just trolling. Big tough guy here lol. People probably talk about how nothing can touch WoW because it is still at the top even after losing millions of players. They've lost more players than other MMOs ever have playing them at all.
Not for long time :) Guild wars 2 is coming very fast to the top, and to be frank, has all the rights, is a gorgeous game, and if we think about it .. it's already on top cause in wow remained only kids and fanboys who doesnt distinguish what is good and what is bad, the adult ones had moved on.
@Swifftness @Scarab83 Scarab83, if you can't "understand the strange places WoW has gone" then give up GW2...
These strange places is what keeps WoW fresh, on top and #1.GW2 is cool, but if you can't even wrap your head around WoW then quit bro.
@Scarab83 "immature mind"? kiddo, stop trashing people like this if you dont know nothing about them, this demeans you, i've played wow for like 6 years and now this game had gone to very strange places that i cant understand, like how it was back in the days and how it is now, i dont do this because i like bashing it and have nothing else to do, my estimates are based on facts,grids and many more from the recent years until now.
2 Like @Swifftness @Snowx1 I see it's still cool to bash WoW. It's fun to make sweeping generalizations about something, isn't it? When you have an immature mind, it's easier just to think everything is black and white, however, some people out there play games for fun, whether that's WoW or GW2 or both at the same time. What a novel idea...
@wexorian @hector530 I have seen a lot of BOTs in GW2 and I play both games..WOW and GW2 ..but about to quit GW2 ...because its not my style of gameplay...no crafting system no dungeons...oh wait there are dungeons...in GW2..and you can't play them unless you have some silver to spend..whcih you can't make because you can't trade anything in GW2....i like trading my crafted gears..but oh wait.."GEAR DON"T MATTER in GW2" ...but wait again... Then Whats the Point at lvl 80? OH WAIT ! I read soemoen saying in my guild " in GW2 when you reach lvl 80 you do dungeons to get APPEARANCE items!!! HAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA
Really thats it? Appearance ... baah wasted my 60 bucks on GW2 and 3 months..
3 Like The Pandas are gonna steamroll over all the MMO's when its released. Regardless of who plays WoW. The expansion is going to generate a few hundred million per month for Blizzard.
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2 Like @buccomatic Check again. MOST of the current user base has been Chinese from the get-go... This article was posted, because World of Warcraft has had a history of meeting "criteria" in the past. PS: wow sucks.
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@buccomatic Chinese have their own servers.... you won't ever see them.... ugh typical WoW players.
1 Like hahaha let's not forget the World of Warcraft-themed restaurant in China some years ago
4 Like @fatee @buccomatic not including large population of political prisoners doing gold farming.
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World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
- Publisher(s): Blizzard Entertainment
- Genre: Role-Playing
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- ESRB: T
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