China Bans World Of Warcraft Again >

	2009/11/03 11:19:53: Posted by DM
	In another crackdown against online gaming, China has put World of Warcraft under review yet again. The Chinese operator of the game, NetEase, was ordered to stop collecting fees and suspend new account registration because the game is in violation of regulation agreements. The game was stated to be in "gross violation" of Chinese regulations, actually, and the government has returned the company's application to operate "the Burning Crusade." Nothing about "The Lich King," funnily. WoW just returned from a few months of hiatus in China due to government issues. It seems like China is just not going to allow Blizzard to run their juggernaut of a game in China without serious concessions. Blizzard must be losing billions of dollars, yet again, and we know tons of players are likely switching to Aion. In America, Blizzard could sue the government for loss of revenues. In China, they have to be careful not to end up paying for the bullet that executes them. >Link
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i dont see how ActiBlizz is losing billions of dollars for the amount of time the game isnt running in China(which according to the link, the game is still online), perhaps millions, but not billions. their yearly revenue on just WoW memberships for the 11.5 mil registered accounts would amount to just over $2 billion($14.99 x 11.5mil x 12months). i could be wrong though considering the royalties the chinese company would need to pay to allow service of the game, which from what i read was around 20% back in 05...

chinese company being NetEase, the royalty factor was for a different company in 05, so i am uncertain on that point.