General Administration of Press and Publication
Blizzard established a distribution agreement with the Chinese company NetEase in August 2008 to publish Blizzard's games in China. The deal focused on ' which was gaining popularity as an esport within southeast Asia, as well as for other Blizzard games with the exception of "World of Warcraft", still being handled by The9. The two companies established the Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology for managing the games within China. Blizzard and The9 prepared to launch the "World of Warcraft" expansion ', but the expansion came under scrutiny by China's content regulation board, the General Administration of Press and Publication, which rejected publication of it within China in March 2009, even with preliminary modifications made by The9 to clear it. Rumors of Blizzard's dissatisfaction with The9 from this and other previous complications with "World of Warcraft" came to a head when, in April 2009, Blizzard announced it was terminating its contract with The9, and transferred operation of "World of Warcraft" in China to NetEase.