NetEase Announces Partnership Renewal with Blizzard Entertainment - World of Warcraft Returning to China

Warning: Spoilers for World of Warcraft: The War Within below.

Beginning May 3, the arena gates will open once more for the 2024 Dragonflight Season 4 Arena World Championship (AWC)! Tune in to the final two Cups on Twitch and YouTube to see how far the gladiators will go.

A newly announced Stardew Valley mod seeks to introduce a variety of Baldur's Gate 3-inspired content to the game. The ambitious project could hence add to the ever-growing list of community-created Stardew Valley add-ons, assuming it manages to realize its avid aspirations.

A World of Warcraft fan recently noticed that Earthen characters leave behind piles of rocks when they die, rather than a skeleton. This charming detail is not only unique to the Earthen but is also a direct nod to the lore of the new World of Warcraft race.

Apple has announced investment plans to expand its clean energy footprint around the world as part of the ‘Apple 2030' initiative aiming to be carbon neutral across its entire value chain by 2030. While Apple's global operations and supply chain is powered by more than 18 gigawatts of clean electricity, the Cupertino-based tech giant is investing more in solar power in the US and Europe.

The annual PC Gaming Show broadcast is set to return this year, with the show celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2024. Once again, the showcase will debut and delve into several games coming to PC in the months and years to come, making it essential viewing for those who primarily play on desktop.

Palworld, the viral survival game that stirred up controversy (and found plenty of success) on the back of being a Pokémon-a-like - with added guns and factory labour, mind - is now due to become the inspiration for its own generation of clones, according to the head of its developers.

Expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) push, Microsoft has announced that it will be investing $1.5 billion in United Arab Emirates-based artificial intelligence firm G42, giving the U.S. giant a minority stake and a board seat, allowing the two to deepen ties amid the global battle for tech dominance. AI has become the buzzword of the last few years, with companies around the world competing to leverage this technology.

NVIDIA seems to have been shipping A100 "Ampere" GPUs with higher core counts than the original spec in China as per recent retail listings.

VR fans galore as two modders have created a WoW VR mod that adds support for VR to the final patch of World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King.

Within two days of NetEase announcing a renewal of their partnership to bring Blizzard games back to China, over two million players have pre-registered, 147,000 accounts reactivated, 92,000 accounts recovered, and Blizzard China has received 1,000+ resumes! While restoring service to other Blizzard games including Hearthstone, Overwatch, Starcraft, Diablo, and Heroes of the Storm, the response for WoW has been overwhelming. Officially reported by Blizzard China and translated by NasDa on Twitter, these stats show the extreme appetite for World of Warcraft in China. While many players completely rerolled on Taiwanese realms in order to keep playing after servers shut down last year, many more still have been left in limbo, without access to the game they invested the better part of two decades into playing.

World of Warcraft’s current expansion, Dragonflight, is winding down. While we know what’s next — we’ll be heading into three expansions that are collectively called the Worldsoul Saga — the team at Blizzard has been having fun with some much more experimental and unique patches. This includes Plunderstorm, a pirate themed battle royale, and now a Remix of the Mists of Pandaria expansion.