Chinese online game operator The9 has taken a lot of flack recently for badly handling the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. WoW originally launched in China 6 months after the U.S., but the launch of The Burning Crusade expansion was delayed until now, while it has been available in the U.S. for almost an entire year. This means the Chinese player base has been left with no content updates since October!

The real anger from fans has begun to be felt because there is speculation that The9 are diverting technical and monetary resources away from WoW intentionally to support their new license "SUN". Sun is an abbreviation that stands for "Soul of Ultimate Nation" , a Korean game developed by Webzen. WoW fans in China have already attempted to organize a boycott of The9 due to the perceived plot to damage their game of choice. In one exteme case a The9 staff member was physically beaten at an internet cafe while promoting Sun. A crowd of on-lookers cheered the beating.

Rumor has it that The9 may lose over half of their licenses, including WoW, due to their mishandling of the Burning Crusade launch. The9 claims it wasn't responsible for the problems, citing Chinas General Administration of Press and Publication's harsh regulations. The recent fatigue system implemented by GAPP in July goes as far as to monitor and limit the amount of time spent by minors playing video games. Time will tell if they lose WoW or not, but they certainly have not won the hearts of the Chinese people.