If you cast your mind back, oh say, a day, then you’ll remember we reported that China had reached the 1 million concurrent user mark for World of Warcraft. The game that seemingly makes the world go round has seen huge success in the Far East, with over half of its total 10 million userbase coming from that part of the world.

Part of the success of the game in recent months, particularly in China, has been the release of The Burning Crusade expansion pack. The9, WoW’s operator in China, cited this as the primary reason for the high number of concurrent users. Well, Blizzard has taken note of this and has decided to redefine “strike while that iron is hot”. Much to the joy of The9, I’m sure, Blizzard has announced that it will be expanding its license agreement with The9 to include the release of WoW’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King.

Blizzard really isn’t mucking about in terms of its Chinese interests. It obviously realizes there is huge untapped potential in China and that they have what many developers could only dream of, the smallest foothold in what could be a huge seam of dwarven gold.