warcraft-3 posts

The9 is out, NetEase is in for Chinese World of Warcraft operator

by Seraphina Brennan Apr 16th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Expansions, MMO industry, News items, Legal

Yesterday, we reported the rumor that it looked like Chinese World of Warcraft operator The9 might be losing the licensing rights to a competitor, and today we can confirm that rumor to be 100% true. Rival company NetEase has purchased the rights to operate World of Warcraft in China, starting once The9's current contract is up with Blizzard on June 8th.

NetEase is already the operator of Battle.net in China, supporting Warcraft III and the to-be-released Starcraft II. They have been operating with Blizzard since last August, when they acquired all of the rights to the other Blizzard games. This acquisition only brings NetEase and Blizzard closer together in their business arrangement.

What is still up in the air, however, is the fate of Wrath of the Lich King. DoNews, a Chinese news site, has reported that Wrath has been licensed by NetEase, although no formal announcement has yet been made.

[Via JLM Pacific Epoch]

Tags: battle.net, blizzard, legal, licensing, netease, patch-3.0, rights, starcraft-2, starcraft-ii, the9, transition, warcraft-3, warcraft-iii, world-of-warcraft, wotlk, wrath, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Blizzard retains PC gaming dominance

by James Egan Sep 4th 2008 at 6:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, MMO industry, News items

As if in response to predictions of the beginning of the end, Blizzard's market dominance in US PC game sales was reaffirmed in late August through the NPD Group's research. In fact, World of Warcraft garnered three of the top spots on the PC game sales chart, with The Diablo Battle Chest and The Warcraft III Battle Chest thrown in for good measure, Gamesindustry.biz reports.

While it could be argued that World of Warcraft's steady retail box sales silences all erroneous claims of the rise of a WoW-killer (oops... uttered the dreaded phrase), this doesn't seem to take into account all those Warhammer Online pre-orders placed in August. In that case, September might paint a different picture. But let's face it -- WoW's not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. And despite the knocks World of Warcraft takes from some MMO gamers, would you really want a world without Warcraft?

One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Tags: blizzard, diablo, gamesindustry, gamesindustry.biz, npd, npd-group, war, warcraft-3, warcraft-iii, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow, wow-insider, wow-killer

The Daily Grind: Is in-game music necessary?

by Akela Talamasca Feb 5th 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind

I hate to say this, and I sincerely hope that any sound engineers who might be reading this will forgive me, but when I get into a new game, the first thing I do is turn off the background music. This is not to say I don't think the music is good; in fact, many times it's great. I bought the Warcraft III soundtrack, f'r cryin' out loud. But when I drop in-world, ready to kick some ass and take some names with at least one apostrophe in them, I'd rather just immerse myself fully, and that means only hearing the environmental and ambient soundtrack.

Or I'll listen to my own music, preferring the juxtaposition of modern instrumentation with medieval visuals. Or I'll even just listen to the Penny Arcade podcast, if I get lonely for the sound of human dialogue. Am I alone in this? Am I missing out on a wonderful experience by omitting a piece of the whole that was engineered to enhance the gameplay experience? How do you feel about background music?

Tags: background-music, opinion, penny-arcade, soundtrack, the-daily-grind, warcraft-3