WarCraft helps drive sales at NetEase
Chinese operator records profit of $88m for third quarter
Chinese MMO business NetEase has reported an increase in profits for the quarter ended September 30, from CNY 393.8m ($59.2m /£37m) last year to CNY 585.3m ($88.1m / £55.1m).
Revenues were CNY 1.4 billion ($210.7m / £131.8m) compared to CNY 879.4 million ($132.3m / £82.8m) for the same period last year.
"As a result of large-scale sales promotional and branding activities starting since the second quarter of 2010, Fantasy Westward Journey broke another record for peak concurrent users on July 4, 2010," said CEO William Ding.
"Fantasy Westward Journey's strong performance was the leading catalyst for our third quarter online game revenue growth of 6 per cent quarter-over-quarter. This game continues to rank as one of the most popular massively multiplayer online games ever in the Chinese market.
"In addition to Fantasy Westward Journey, our year-over-year online games revenue growth of over 60 per cent was primarily driven by World of Warcraft, a game licensed from Blizzard Entertainment, Heroes of Tang Dynasty and Tianxia II."
The company launched Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King on August 31, and will run StarCraft II next year once approved by the Chinese government.