The Curse of World of Warcraft

Online gaming has grown in China, and nothing better illustrates the follies of the sector better than the World of Warcraft curse. The game, created by U.S.-based Blizzard Entertainment, appears to be a curse that adversely affects any Chinese company it touches. The9 originally had the Chinese license to operate the game, but first denied rumors that it would lose the license in 2008. Then in March 2009, more rumors spread that The9 would soon lose the WoW franchise in China. One month later, in April 2009, the rumors were proven true: Blizzard dumped The9 and chose Netease.com instead. Then The9 sued Blizzard in Shanghai and The9 cut 300 of its staff. But then the curse moved to NetEase.com, which angered Chinese online gamers with postponements to a re-launch of the game. Then The9, who now lacked its one-trick pony game, announced a huge profit drop. NetEase.com finally resumed the WoW game in September 2009, and investors in The9 launched a lawsuit in the United States because of lack of disclosure over WoW's fate. The curse again shifted back to NetEase.com in November when the Chinese government announced that NetEase.com had no legal right to operate the WoW game — this caused NetEase.com to announce a poor financial quarter.