News

The World Of Warcraft series is currently inaccessible online for Chinese customers after creators Blizzard were accused of committing "gross violations" of Chinese law. The game has been offline for the majority of this year and according to Reuters, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has revoked the licence that is needed to play the game from NetEase, Blizzards localisation partner.

The company have been ordered to stop charging gamers for the service and to not allow any new subscriptions. The company have said that they believe they are in full compliance with the law and that they will be seeking "clarification" as to exactly which laws they have broken.

It is thought that a behind the scenes power struggle is the cause for the revocation and that Blizzard are unfortunately caught in the middle. This is a view backed up by Roth Capital Partners Analyst, Adam Krejcik who says, "These guys are essentially stuck in the middle of this power struggle." The struggle is thought to be over the control of GAPP and the hugely influential Ministry Of Culture.