Blizzard games such as World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 are going offline in China on January 23 as Blizzard and NetEase couldn't reach a deal to renew agreements. This means that all Blizzard games will have to be re-approved by the Chinese government, but while it's busy in talks with new partners to keep WoW in China, Tencent has developed its own MMO.Tarisland is similarly stylish with a cartoon-like aesthetic rather than hyperrealism, and it even features rideable dragons, something WoW only recently added with Dragonflight. The full trailer is just shy of three minutes and shows off mining settlements, numerous fields, forest towns, ethereal spaces with moving bridges, sky cities, and more. The trailer even has a giant firey black dragon with red highlights, standing on its back legs before breathing fire - they look an awful lot like WoW's Deathwing.
As reported by Bloomberg, WoW is huge in China, and Tencent's new MMO looks to be an attempt at filling the gap. But Tarisland isn't the only game seeking to step into WoW's place while Blizzard attempts to get it back up and running, as Lost Ark has also been approved to run in China.
It's still unclear who Blizzard will partner with to relaunch games like Overwatch 2 and WoW, but the big contenders right now are Tencent, ByteDance Ltd., and Perfect World, who publish Valve games like Dota 2.
Until WoW is back, Chinese players can look forward to trying out Tarisland, which is set to accept new testers this week on PC and mobile. Not only does it look a lot like WoW, it even shares some of the same actors, so maybe we'll get to hear this other Deathwing yell such iconic quote as, "I AM DEATHWING". Either way, it looks to be familiar enough.