WoW may go free-to-play in China

WoW may go free-to-play in China

mlauzon76 on 19 November 2007 - 20:20 · 21 comments & 16454 views

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According to a news story on RedlineChina, The9 -- publisher of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft in China -- is currently in talks with Blizzard to offer WoW as a free-to-play game in China. This is rather surprising news to hear, especially after The9's Q3 sales report where the company had net revenue of $42.2m -- due almost entirely to World of Warcraft. That said, the company is also barely scraping by on profits because of increasing operating costs for the game. The increased costs are primarily due to the use of high-quality HP server farms to support its popularity in China.

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#1 nonick on 19 Nov 2007 - 21:23

er what? because the game is popular they are not gaining profits? wtf?

(1 reply) #2 NightmarE D on 19 Nov 2007 - 21:28

If they do that, then every other WoW player in the world will start complaining and want it to be free in their region. It will come back to bite Blizzard in the butt.

I think pay-to-play games are a rip-off anyway. You buy the game from the store for 20 to 30 buks. Then you have to pay each month to play the game at all. Unless you turn your system into your very own private server that only you can play on.

#2.1 eilegz on 21 Nov 2007 - 04:35

well xbox live do that and i dont see anyone complaining for paying a multiplayer game...

anyways free to play its always better

(2 replies) #3 Nose Nuggets on 19 Nov 2007 - 22:16

there has to be a catch.

#3.1 Raa on 19 Nov 2007 - 23:06

There always is

#3.2 alanp on 19 Nov 2007 - 23:26

Yes... usually free to play games sell virtual items and/or in game currency... that's how they make money.

#4 OblivionStalker on 19 Nov 2007 - 23:48

Blizzard will never allow them to do such thing.

(1 reply) #5 dyreryft on 20 Nov 2007 - 01:24

wait... due to rising costs of maintaining servers they want to offer it for free... because offering it for free will bring them in so much revenue to pay for those servers.

Does that make sense to anyone?

Or by offering it for free they can put them out on to servers they don't have to maintain? is that what they are trying to get at?

#5.1 Shadrack on 20 Nov 2007 - 17:50

I'm just as confused as you are. There seems to be a flaw in someones logic here...

Maybe offering it for free means that they do not need to provide technical support to the users or something along those lines. I dunno...

#6 toadeater on 20 Nov 2007 - 07:13

I'm surprised they haven't just used one of the WoW server emu programs and run underground Chinese servers with it.

#7 Grunt on 20 Nov 2007 - 07:16

It just means it's now free to use the Chinese to farm for us!

#8 Makaveli7 on 20 Nov 2007 - 07:59

i bet they would do some sort of in game advertising if this ever went through

it would be funny seeing billboards plastered all over the place

#9 Kushan on 20 Nov 2007 - 12:02

If this happens, I may just play it again. Even if it means playing on Chinese servers.

#10 perochan on 20 Nov 2007 - 19:13

i guess everyone will jump into Chinese servers lol. I would resume WoW if actually happens.

#11 jstillion on 20 Nov 2007 - 19:27

It may be due to the fact that by law players in china are limited to the number of hours they can play per day.

#12 Jack 0Neill on 20 Nov 2007 - 20:51

So now the bots can make MORE money for selling gold.

#13 Samboini on 20 Nov 2007 - 22:35

There's always a catch; it probably means they will then be able to drop support or something similar saving in other areas.

(1 reply) #14 Gabe3 on 20 Nov 2007 - 22:58

I quit WoW like 3 months ago and sold my account. I miss that kind of game, I want a new popular game thats free to play, hopefully guildwars 2 will fulfill that need but who knows. I just won't and don't want to get back into WoW.

#14.1 Dazer on 21 Nov 2007 - 03:00

I'm in the same boat mate. At university now and although I miss WoW, the idea of going back to that addiction scares me.

I would have to say bye to real life once more!

#15 jayr0 on 22 Nov 2007 - 16:43

wow is for emo kids & is played out like atari xbl is where its at

#16 Smeltn on 23 Nov 2007 - 19:19

I really dont see this happening. Not for free, come on.

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WoW may go free-to-play in China

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