Wrath of the Lich King to launch in China "as soon as possible," says Morhaime

Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime has said that the firm intends to launch WoW upgrade Wrath of the Lich King in China as soon as possible, but the process is being held up by red tape.

"Our desire is to release in China as close as possible to the release elsewhere in the world," said the developer boss. "We do have to work with getting certain government approvals to be able to do that and so we are working with the government to get those necessary approvals and hope to launch as soon as possible."

Morhaime, speaking in Activision's first quarter earnings call, added that the market-leading MMO is growing thanks to launches in different language markets, wit Russia soon to come online.

"We have seen stronger growth around our marketing campaigns, holiday season, and the release of new content and so I would expect that trend to continue," he said.

"We also see growth around our releases in new markets, like I mentioned most recently we launched in Latin America just this past month, and our next market will be in Russia and we are continuing to look at additional markets as they come online, as broadband penetration and economies of some up-and-coming markets make them viable."

Blizzard announced last week that WoW will launch in Russia this month.