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Tencent Unveils New MMO Tarisland as World of Warcraft Faces Shutdown in China

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Tencent, the Chinese multinational conglomerate, has announced the release of a new massively multiplayer online game (MMO) called Tarisland. The game, which is set to debut in China, comes at a time when World of Warcraft, one of the most popular MMOs in the world, is set to go offline in the country.

Blizzard titles like World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 will no longer be available in China as of January 23. The publisher was unable to agree to renew their contract with Netease. Therefore, the Chinese government will need to approve all Blizzard games again. The publisher is now negotiating with new partners to keep World of Warcraft available in China. Netease’s competitor, Tencent, has now seen an opportunity to develop its MMO.

Tarisland is similar to World of Warcraft. The game’s trailer shows a cartoon-like design as opposed to visual art. Additionally, the game features rideable dragons, which WOW also added to Dragonflight recently. The trailer also features a giant, fiery black dragon with crimson highlights that stands on its hind legs before releasing fire. Additionally, this dragon resembles WOW’s Deathwing. The three minutes long clip features mining villages, farms, forest towns, ethereal regions with moving bridges, sky cities, and more.

WoW is extremely popular and has a significant player base in China. Therefore, with its impending shutdown, Tencent’s new MMO Tarisland aims to fill the void left by the popular game. However, Tarisland is one of many games vying for the position, as Lost Ark has also been granted permission to operate in China.

Tencent has yet to announce a release date for Tarisland, but the company has stated that the game will be available on both PC and mobile platforms. Additionally, Tencent has not yet revealed any pricing details for the game.

What is your take? What do you think about Tencent revealing its MMO? Do you think it will compete with WOW? Let us know on our socials here or in the comments below.

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Evans Karanja is a video game reviewer and features writer at Gaming.net, covering game reviews, platform recommendations, and new releases across all major consoles and PC. He has played games since childhood starting with Contra on the NES and writes exclusively from first-hand experience, playing every title he covers before recommending it.

He specialises in story-driven and single-player games, indie titles, and platform-specific guides across Game Pass, PS Plus, and Nintendo Switch Online. When not writing, find him spectating the markets, playing his favorite titles, hiking or watching F1.