After more than two months of costly downtime, Blizzard and Chinese operator NetEase have finally opened up the doors once again to World of Warcraft players across China.

The downtime occurred after Blizzard switched to NetEase from its former operator, The9. The changeover resulted in scrutiny from the Chinese government as well as a round of mandated content edits, mostly to the game's undead characters.

NetEase started running a closed beta on July 30 until full operations recommenced. To keep the service running, the company spent estimates of almost US$ 150,000 a day. At least now that the game's up and running again (the website's also live for new WoW and Battle.net accounts), both companies can start recouping their losses.

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