Electronic Arts buys a chunk of The9 stake

Is Electronic Arts trying to get a piece of the MMO – specifically the World of Warcraft piece of the pie – in China?

The9 is the exclusive distributor of Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft in mainland China. They reached an agreement with Electronic Arts – selling a 19% stake for about US$ 200 million. Another big purchase for EA is a 25% stake in Neowiz (Korean game developers) for US$ 190 million. What exactly is Electronic Arts planning? They still have Ultima Online and The Sims Online (which, this writer notes only has a fraction of players compared to the giant World of Warcraft.)

Anyway, we’ll see where this is going. Stay tuned for more news.

Is Electronic Arts trying to get a piece of the MMO – specifically the World of Warcraft piece of the pie – in China?

The9 is the exclusive distributor of Blizzard‘s World of Warcraft in mainland China. They reached an agreement with Electronic Arts – selling a 19% stake for about US$ 200 million. Another big purchase for EA is a 25% stake in Neowiz (Korean game developers) for US$ 190 million. What exactly is Electronic Arts planning? They still have Ultima Online and The Sims Online (which, this writer notes only has a fraction of players compared to the giant World of Warcraft.)

Anyway, we’ll see where this is going. Stay tuned for more news.