On June 7th, earlier this month, Blizzard Entertainment failed to renue its license with its former Chinese partner, The9. To allow the large Chinese population to continue enjoying the online sensation, Blizzard charged NetEase.com to take the reins for providing service to players. However, NetEase could not take over the MMO and Blizzard has yet to reveal when servers would go up once more. According the Blizzard, they are working hard with NetEase to ensure a smooth transition.

Chinese research analyst Zhao Xufeng from iResearch claims that there are over 50 million online gamers in the country and the largest percentile lies in Blizzard's popular MMORPG. According to him, their is a strong probability that if NetEase does not return the game to service soon, that Chinese players would likely leave the game. Also, other third-party developers have increased their advertising significantly to take advantage of World of Warcraft's moment of weakness.