Do you think NCTY can eventually return to strong profits by diverting
WoW players to other games? Perhaps 2 or 3 quarters from now?

Gamers don't care which company licenses and runs their servers
(unless they suck), they only care which games are the most fun to
play. Nothing can make up for a record breakingly popular game that
has unheard of profitability levels. From a business perspective WoW
is incredibly unique as far as games go and I don't see any future
MMORPGs with the same style being even remotely as profitable. The9
has also lost the chance to run Starcraft 2 (which has a cult-like
fanbase). None of the games they are working on are even worth
playing...unless you like soccer (commy sport).

On Jun 23, 4:22 pm, jc18...@yahoo.com wrote:

umm yeah, very true...if starcraft 2 is ever released..
in addition, i agree that WoW is a grade A cash cow, but I wouldn't be
so blind as to assume it will carry on forever.. eventually people
will get bored of the expansion packs, and it might come sooner than
you think.
WoW in China has many issues, the GAAP for one. It will be a huge
strain on NTES when they get it to work (servers etc), and then they
will have to deal with "harmonising" the game..
it's really a huge headache.
If it makes money for NTES, fine, but Bliz aren't making that much
cash from the China subscribers when you take into account how many of
them there are. Also, im not an expert on this kind of stuff, but i
would guess that running WoW is pretty hard, and initially NTES would
have some issues..

In the short term, NCTY might win a one or two of the 3 cases they
still have against Blizz, get some extra cash and do something else
with it. Like invest in some of the games which are being developed in
Asia and are gaining popularity. Hell, they might even announce more
cases against them.

Its really a matter of wait and see for now, as anything can happen.
Also, don't underestimate Fifa 2. it's really popular over there and
EA own a large chunk of the9 and will want a decent return on their
investment (maybe even give them some other lincense)

dont overestimate Fifa Online 2, The9 actualy have opened only 15
Server Sites for Fifa 2....Atlantica has 9 Server Sites and over
100.000 Peak Concurrent User (do the math)....may be Fifa can have a
push from world soccer championship event next year, but i dont think
many girls will play this kind of game.

Only Chance for The9 is now Audition 2, which may be ready in some
month...and Sky of Three Kingdoms (also from G10)....Their is still no
word from Electronic Arts (EA), may be they write off their investment
in The9 and give licence of Warhammer and Need for Speed Online to a
bigger company.

Kingsoft has already said, their will be no exclusive licence for JX
Online 3...so i think Shanda will operate the game too....with all the
cuts, i think The9 is out of game...in the future their will only be 3
big players in chinas online gaming market: Tencent, Netease.com and
Shanda

thats pretty interesting stuff.. where did you get the info about how
many servers they got running for those games?

from investor relations office of The9

On Jun 29, 1:25 pm, vieas <alex.lushni...@gmail.com> wrote:

damn man, good research!
i think warhammer is already gone to someone else...
I think you might be right about a few things, the9 probably wont be
one of the top players in china, but that doesn't mean they aren't a
good investment.
They might not grow loads, but they might get some victories in the
courts and release some good games (i think they were planning to
release 7 or 9 this year alone).
Maybe even get bought out by a competitor.