The9 sent out a short press release announcing that World of Warcraft in China, as well as the rest of The9's other MMO games, would go offline for three days following the earthquake that occurred in the country last week. More on this news after the jump.

Good news to players of World of Warcraft who are in China! The9 Limited has forged an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment regarding the latest expansion to one of the biggest MMORPGs in the world. The Wrath of the Lich King has been decided to be released in mainland China. Read more on this in the full article.

The9 Limited has just announced that starting today they would be blocking accounts of World of Warcraft players who take advantage of the game through illegitimate means such as design bugs, pulg-ins, and private servers. Read more on this in the full article.

Microtransaction advocate and worldwide publisher Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) reported a net revenue of US$ 395 million for the first quarter (Q1) of fiscal year (FY) 2007, which dipped 4% than last year's US$ 413 million. But after EA's recent announcement to 'pull the plug' on servers for older boxed games, the publisher announced via press wire than it will now recognize revenue derived from those services. Such earnings will be reflected in future financial reports.

 

The gross profit for Q1 dropped 7% to US$ 229 million compared to last year, while the company's quarter net losses reached US$ 132 million as opposed to the prior year's US$ 81 million. And for concerned investors who couldn't make it to the company's conference call, diluted loss per share was claimed at US$ 0.42 (US$ 0.26 last year). Non-GAAP diluted loss per share dipped by US$ 0.22 (US$ 0.12 last year).

Surprisingly, EA's operating cash flow was noticeably slimmer this year, as its twelve-month flow was tallied at US$ 243 million, compared to a deeper US$ 589 million pocket last year. EA claimed to have ended the quarter with cash and short term investments amounting to US$ 2.2 billion.

Biggest highlights of the quarter for the publishing giant were the two million units sold in a single week for the company's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, while closer to corporate news was the arrival of Peter Moore, former Microsoft corporate vice president, and Kathy Vrabeck, former Activision president, to the executive ranks of the company.

In addition, the company has reorganized itself into four labels which is expected to come into effect this current quarter, while expanding further into Asia with equity investments in The9 Limited, China and Neowiz Corporation, Korea. An agreement with The9 was also signed to bring EA SPORTS FIFA Online to China.

Thanks to revenue from Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited has reported a 54% rise in its net income for the fourth quarter. The company reported net revenues of US$ 36.2 million in the fourth quarter, a 21% increase from the third quarter of 2006 and a 54% increase from the previous fiscal year.

Of its net Q4 revenues, The9 attributed US$ 36.1 million to its operation of WoW, which recorded peak and average concurrent user numbers of 680,000 and 340,000, respectively, in the fourth quarter. This includes revenue from game-playing time, merchandise and installation package sales. The9 began operating the game in mainland China two years ago.

It has been reported several times before that businesses conducting gold farming in World of Warcraft are being done in China. Blizzard and other devs have always maintained that this practice disrupts the in-game economy. Because of this reason alone, it is logical to think that WoW would never go to that country, but apparently, that is not the case.

Local online game operator The9 Limited announced today that they have revised their original license agreement with Vivendi Games and Blizzard. Why did they do that? Well, because they're bringing over The Burning Crusade there as well. Being the exclusive operator of the game in China, this is actually big given the expansion's success in other markets.

Aside from WoW, The9 Limited has also obtained exclusive licenses for important games such as Guild Wars and Hellgate: London. They also hold the reins for bigshot Asian MMOs like Granado Espada, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, Ragnarok Online 2, and Emil Chronicle Online. Aside from distributing the said titles, the company is also developing a local fantasy MMO called Fantasy Melody Online.

Given The9 Limited's roster of titles, it looks like our beloved WoW is in good hands after all. Now we wonder when it will come out in other markets like Japan and Korea.