The company is based in Shanghai. The9.com was the winner of the bidding war last year between Chinese game companies vying to win the right to introduce Blizzard entertainment's WoW cataclysm Classic to the expanding market of gamers online in China The9.com has today announced the localized version of the massively multiplayer role-playing game for its own market.
There are indications positive that China launch may be as successful as Blizzard has seen in this space The beta open to the game, available since the 26th of April the year before, witnessed instances where greater than 500 000 players were active at the same time.
In an announcement, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime today stated "We think that China provides a massive and eager player base and is poised to be the next big gaming area."
The9 certainly hopes to benefit from the expansion. The9 was in a fierce battle against the bigger as well-established online gaming operator Shanda to be the first for the opportunity to deliver WOW the game to China. In order to help finance the capital costs necessary to run the game the company was listed at the NASDAQ in December of 2004 and dedicated its efforts to the present day for more than a year, bringing on employees and enhancing the infrastructure needed to support the game.
As the revenues in WoW Cataclysm Classic in China grows, The9 hopes to see an improvement in its financial results. Last month The company released its financial results for the quarter that ended on March 31st, 2005 which showed a decrease in the quarter-on-quarter ratio in its net income of 25 percent (on revenue that grew by almost 45 percent).
In the process of causing the losses, there were expenses associated with the Cataclysm Classic Gold launch that, according to the company, were completely justifiable. In a press release in the month of March the company stated, "We strongly believe that the investment of substantial resources at the beginning of a game's cycle is essential, and the results from this investment are likely to be beneficial over the long term."
