GAPP Snaps, Shuts Down WOW in China
GAPP Snaps, Shuts Down WOW in China
November 3, 2009
As China’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the Ministry of Culture continue to flex their muscles over control of the country’s game industry, World of Warcraft gamers and operators are feeling the brunt of the infighting between the two entities.
Reuters reports that GAPP has stripped NetEase of the ability to operate The Burning Crusade, the latest version of WOW. GAPP cited a “gross violation” of regulations and ordered NetEase to stop charging users to play the game and to cease taking new subscriptions.
NetEase has since responded, saying that they “believe that they are in full compliance with applicable PRC laws and are currently seeking clarification from the relevant governmental authorities.”
Roth Capital Partners analyst Adam Krejcik said of NetEase, “These guys are essentially stuck in the middle of this power struggle.”
Until September of this year, GAPP was responsible for approving all game content within China. The Ministry of Culture assumed some of these duties, but GAPP appears unwilling to give up its authority, leading to the current infighting. WOW was launched in China on September 19 with Ministry of Culture approval, but no GAPP approval, which is now coming back to haunt NetEase.
Analysts estimate that Chinese WOW activity contributes 5 or 6 cents a year per share to Activision’s earnings.
Thanks Greenfenri
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Comments
Here we go, but then again, we saw this one coming a mile away.
-Veni, vidi, vici, I came, I saw, I conquered.
Haha, saw this shit coming. But I don't believe for a minute that they 'snapped'. This was probably what they had in mind from the beginning. And it probably won't be reversed. Sucks to be you, Chinese.
...as if millions of gold farmers suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.
My thoughts exactly..
"Oh, damn.. Those top end raiders will actually have to FARM for thier gold now.. That's too bad.
This is what you get when a government has total control over media, information, and their economy. Silly how so many fail to understand.
This is what you get when a government has total control over media, information, and their economy. Silly how so many fail to understand.
Yep - 100% right. Socialism/Communism at work. Since somehow it's supposedly for 'the good of all' (for the good of all of the government - would be accurate).
Funny - they make all over the 'olympics' and blow billions on the big gala for it - a popular video game? Ban it!
Is one *truly* 'more productive' than the other? They are both games - of a different sort perhaps, but games nonetheless.
"Reuters reports that GAPP has stripped NetEase of the ability to operate The Burning Crusade, the latest version of WOW"
I thought Wrath of the Lich King was the latest version of WoW...
I don't really care anyway, if this means less gold farmers and idiots spelling the name of their gold selling site out of corpses in Org then I will not loose sleep over this.
Haha.. You have to admit. That's a pretty clever marketing technique..
It was clever... for the first five minutes. But it's been going on for months now, I had to basically walk past a giant advertisement every time I wanted to buy something off the auction house. It got annoying VERY quickly.
"Go ahead and hate your neighbor, go ahead and cheat a friend. Do it in the name of Heaven, Jack Thompson'll justify it in the end." - nightwng2000
That's been a touchy issue since in that country too many have hangups about how the dead are portrayed
Do you honestly think the chinese world of warcraft servers shutting down will have any effect on the gold farming business on american or european servers? even if the actual gold farmers may or may not be chineses? because you know.. they're not getting that money on the chinese servers, they're getting them on the western servers. Their access to the chinese version has little if anything to do with it.
As I said at the Eurogamer coverage of this, the Chinese can't have their cake and eat it when it comes to the global market. I really hope the moderates prevail.
We may not actually see the Chinese premier come down on this (It's arguable whether it's important enough to begin with), my understanding is that the responsibility for incidents like this is strictly with the individual departments. Thus the premier doesn't get any flack (Or criticism) for things going.
Actually with their global economic power, and the the amount of U.S. treasury bonds they own, China is in a very powerful position in the global market and arguably could eat their cake if they really wanted to.
I mean considering how much of the U.S.A. they own, if they really wanted to they could more or less shut down the U.S. economy (the largest in the world), and cause all kinds of crazy fluctuations in the market.
Of course they would never do anything like that, because as much as it may seem like they isolated from the rest of the world, the world economy NEEDS China as much as china needs the world economy.
I read something about there being a challenge to them being accepted into one of those world banking groups (The WTO I presume) if they keep discouraging certain external products and services, as they're doing plenty of export on their own, hence my use of the cake and eating saying. :)
This just reinforces my belief that China needs Liberty Prime on their doorstep.
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