Shanghai, China based MMO operator and developer The 9, formerly holders of the Chinese license to operate World of Warcraft recently reported a whopping 94 percent drop in third quarter revenues YOY.
Third quarter revenues for the 9 came in at $3.7 million, a 91 percent drop from from second quarter revenues, $42.2 million. At the same time, only one year prior, The 9 was posting a revenue take of $59.8 million. If there’s any question not only about Activision/Blizzard’s dominance with World of Warcraft, but also how much revenue the Chinese market is generating, not only with WoW, but online gaming in general – this report from The 9 should put things into perspective.
Having lost out on the regional contract back in June to competitor NetEase, The 9 executives are still optimistic about future prospects, as their games catalogue contains a healthy mix of decent titles including FIFA Online 2, Soul of the Ultimate Nation, and Granado Espada. Since the loss of World of Warcraft, this catalogue has seen a 55 percent increase in activity in Q3 when compared to the numbers one year prior.
The 9 is quick to point out that these titles attracted around 3.4 million active users in Q3, up from 3.2 million active users in Q2. The leader in this increase has been Soul of the Ultimate Nation. This increase in activity was spurred on by a new content upgrade, as well as a theft-proof security system. FIFA Online 2 and Atlantica both saw increases in activity, as well as a web based card game Jiu Zhou Zhan Ji.
“Although our revenue loss cannot be recovered within a short period of time, we are glad to see that our research and development capabilities continue to strengthen as a result of our investments,” said The9′s CEO and chairman Jun Zhu. “Our proprietary games have shown substantive progress and a strong potential to be well received by Chinese game players.”
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dfd79408-b331-44ea-a3cc-c43e146c521b)
