li-riqiang
Latest
NetEase loses WoW director, Li Riqiang
World of Warcraft in China continues to walk a rocky path. NetEase, the company currently licensed to operate WoW's The Burning Crusade expansion in China, lost Li Riqiang, a senior director for the WoW business unit on the 24th of February, 2010. There is no word on why he left, and the company is keeping mum on details about the departure and his replacement. This comes on the heels of a 62% jump in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2009 generated since NetEase was able to light up the TBC servers after resolving their disputes with the government, which had prevented them from launching the service in China until September 2009. That revenue increase was accompanied by lower profit margins, however, as NetEase must pay hefty licensing fees to Activision Blizzard. The fact that there are still Chinese players who are willing to play an obsolete and no longer maintained version of the game is a little strange to me-- many Chinese players simply started over on Taiwanese servers. Judging by the amount of red tape that's being wrapped around anything to do with Blizzard, I suspect we'll see Cataclysm released before Chinese players can play Wrath of the Lich King without connecting to a server in Taiwan.
Chinese World of Warcraft project chief resigns
Just when it seemed that NetEase had finally gotten things under control to operate World of Warcraft in China, it's hit another potential road bump. The company released an official statement to Chinese press announcing the resignation of project chief Li Riqiang, according to JLM Pacific Epoch, a research firm that focuses on China. The statement did not give a specific explanation for Riqian's departure nor did it name a possible replacement to fill the seemingly important vacancy. Since taking over World of Warcraft operations in China from The9, NetEase has faced a series of difficulties. It seemed like the company had finally gotten back on track, however, as NetEase was recently approved to run World of Warcraft and the Burning Crusade expansion. It's as yet unclear how Li's absence might sour that good fortune. [Via GI.biz]
