World of Warcraft Launches in China

By Ian Bell June 7, 2005

Blizzards World of Warcraft MMORPG game is one of the top online games this year across the world and China’s contribution will only propel Blizzard to new heights. At one point during the beta test in China, Blizzard saw more than 500,000 users playing on their China based servers simultaneously.

A completely rebuilt pricing and security structure had to be developed for the Chinese market. Under the new system users can download the game, but have to activate their account by purchasing an authorized CD. And instead of paying a monthly subscription fee like you would here in the U.S. users in China must buy cards with points on them and then use those points for playing time. Sounds sort of goofy, but security is extremely important to Blizzard.

You can read more about this story at Gamesindustry.biz

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