One of the biggest games in the world could be getting relaunched in China, according to a recent rumour, and that game is World of Warcraft. This long-running fantasy RPG comes from the developer Activision Blizzard, originally Blizzard Entertainment, and has been running for many years.
However, recently there have been a few issues with the Chinese version of the game as the servers were shut down last year due to an ending of partnership between Blizzard and NetEase, which left thousands of players stranded with no way to access the game, but according to this rumour, players in China may finally gain access to World of Warcraft once again.
World of Warcraft Could Be Getting a New Server in South Korea to Enable Chinese Players to Play the Game Again
For many gamers, there is one big fear: server shutdowns. This is mainly due to the fact that if a server is shut down for a game, players will not be able to access that game unless it doesn’t require an online service.
Sadly, this has been an unfortunate circumstance for all the World of Warcraft players who live in China since the server shut down last year. However, as originally reported by GamesHorizon and according to a recent rumour by Twitter/X user Nico_oq, Activision Blizzard could be setting up a China-only server, but in South Korea.
About Blizzard's China Server Operations pic.twitter.com/Zim2fJTaVK
— 藤川大輔 (@Nico__oq) February 24, 2024
This would mean that players in China would be able to access their accounts and begin playing World of Warcraft once again. One of the few drawbacks to this would be that players would suffer very high pings and would likely have a lot of issues with their games, while also dealing with the added risk of potentially playing with South Korean players if things don’t go to plan.
Activision Blizzard Is Resorting to Such a Drastic Idea Due to Issues With Trademarks in China
If this rumour is true, it is mainly due to the fact that Activision Blizzard is currently struggling to obtain numerous trademarks for portions of the World of Warcraft game itself, which leads to the game servers staying shut down until this situation is resolved, at least in China.
Even though Activision Blizzard and NetEase have begun their partnerships once again and the “World of Warcraft” trademark is frozen, some of the upcoming DLC that will be coming to the game isn’t so lucky.
The DLC’s in question are The War Within, Midnight, and The Last Titan, which, at the time of writing, have currently been rejected in China. Even though these trademarks have been rejected, Blizzard can reapply and eventually get them approved. This process is incredibly lengthy and will cause major delays for the players in China.
Understandably, Activision Blizzard doesn’t want to cause any players to wait until the trademarks in China are complete, so it is now looking towards a temporary alternative to allow players to at least play the game until these situations are resolved.
What do you think about this unfortunate news for World of Warcraft players in China? Are you looking forward to the future DLC’s that are coming to World of Warcraft? Let us know in the comments what you think!
