NetEase posts major growth, blames World of Warcraft
Chinese World of Warcraft provider NetEase has reported significant increases in sales and profit since taking over from The9.
Gamasutra reports the provider saw a 47 percent increase in annual sales over 2009, totting up $857.5 million.
The company's yearly profits rose 16 percent to $338.8 million.
In the fourth quarter, sales rose 31 percent and profits 25 percent on the previous year's.
As 2010 was NetEase's first full year at the World of Warcraft helm, it comes as no surprise that the company puts a lot of the growth down to Blizzard's MMORPG. NetEase CEO William Ding highlighted the August release of expansion Wrath of the Lich King as a particularly strong point.
NetEase's own developed titles also performed strongly, including Tianxia II, Heroes of Tang Dynasty and Westward Journey Online II.