Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been down for weeks in China, as the hugely popular MMORPG switches operators from The9 to NetEase -- though it has just relaunched to existing users in free, 'closed beta' form.
But Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian said in a Friday research note that the financial impact on Activision Blizzard from the downtime will be "modest," partly because Asia makes up just 6 percent of total worldwide World of Warcraft revenues, he estimated.
"While Asia accounts for roughly 50 percent of global users, we estimate the region contributes less than 10 percent of total WoW revenues, due to the licensing structure and timecard model," he wrote.
