The community of World of Warcraft is about to gain strong growth. Over 600,000 fans can hardly wait to finally be able to play.
How many subscribers there currently are in World of Warcraft has been revealed by Blizzard some time ago. But soon there will likely be a significant increase again. More than 600,000 fans have already expressed interest and are waiting to finally roam through Azeroth again.
How do we know the player numbers? In China, shortly after the announcement of the return of World of Warcraft and other games, pre-registration began. Interested fans can already sign up. This also helps NetEase to plan how many servers will ultimately be needed.
Within 24 hours, the number of pre-registrations had already risen to 500,000, and only a few hours later, the mark of 600,000 was also reached. A value that will surely increase significantly in the coming days once the return of Blizzard games to China is widely known.
When can the Chinese play again? There is no specific date yet for the return of Blizzard games to China, although “this summer” the first games are supposed to return, and throughout the year the rest of Blizzard’s catalog is expected to follow.
Currently, the whole agreement looks like a “win-win-win” situation. Because Blizzard is likely to benefit from the Chinese market, as is NetEase from a renewed partnership. Finally, players are also happy that after more than a year of abstinence from their once favorite games, the offering is finally returning to their country.
Why couldn’t Chinese players play? In China, foreign game developers need a domestic partner to operate their games. In the past, Blizzard has worked with NetEase here.
However, at the end of the year before last, there were conflicts during new negotiations that were so severe that the cooperation ultimately failed completely. NetEase was so angry about the outcome that employees even destroyed the huge Warcraft statue. As a result, in January 2023, all Chinese players lost access to their accounts and the servers – WoW and other Blizzard titles were no longer available to them.
Meanwhile, there have been new discussions and the cooperation has been resumed.
