China is finally getting Wrath of the Lich King
It's been a long, hard, ridiculous road for Blizzard to get the Chinese government's approval to make Wrath of the Lich King content available to their citizens. So ridiculous, in fact, that it's difficult to nail down just which related stories are the most important. We could tell you about:
How it was reportedly ready to go in early 2009, but Blizzard's Chinese then-distributor The9 was released from its duties after poor management;
How WoW China's new distributor, NetEase, had to get the entire game re-approved, and upon its relaunch, it faced heavy censorship not requested under its previous owners;
How the entire re-approval process may have been politically motivated due to US-China trade relations;
How Wrath's content review by the government was halted due to collecting subscription fees being "illegal" and creation of new accounts was suspended pending investigation;
And how Burning Crusade was only just approved a few months ago.
And there's a ton more to it. But we might finally be nearing the end of this sordid story, according to the Wall Street Journal. Wrath of the Lich King is set to launch in China next week, barring any more instances of draconian politics, censorship, or mismanagement. Let's just hope that nobody in China wants to play as a death knight.
