In China, NetEase is Offering Cash and In-Game Bounties For WoW Cheaters

World of Warcraft

July 11, 2024

Michael Hassall

Chinese World of Warcraft operator NetEase is offering bounties for players to report cheaters as the MMO returns to China for the first time in a year. Blizzard’s flagship MMO World of Warcraft is set to return to China after a year away, following the breakdown of NetEase and Blizzard’s partnership due to arguments over intellectual property.

To celebrate WoW’s return NetEase is, according to WoWHead, offering bounties for players who report against terms of service activity, such as cheating, botting, real money transactions (RMT), boosts, and other rules-breaking behavior.

Image Credit: NetEase

RMT, gold farming, botting and other issues are allegedly rampant in China, which has in the past earned a reputation for being lax on these activities. But NetEase is looking to crackdown with dramatic bounties. These bounties include up to 1,288 Battle.net Balance.

The top 100 reporting players will receive between 75 and 1,288 Battle.net balance. In China, a WoW Token, or 30 days of game time, apparently retails for around 150 Battle.net balance.

Additionally, there’s reportedly a ¥100,000 (around $13,775 at the time of writing) reward for any reports that lead to legal action against the production or sale of hacks. This is possibly the biggest anti-hacking bounty ever offered in gaming.

WoW Returns to China on August 1. Image Credit: NetEase

However, a cynical interpretation of this could be that NetEase is looking to bring the RMT and other boosts fully in-house – as is the case with Blizzard in the US and Europe. NetEase offers level boosts, WoW Tokens (the ‘official’ RMT) and other services itself, and through subsidiaries such as Lei Huo studio.

Ultimately, the bounties will likely spur many players to try their hand at bot and cheater hunting, especially with literally thousands of dollars on the line.

WoW returns to China on August 1, with The War Within pre patch. As per a notice from June 6, entitled Strive to heal, then recover in excess,” all Chinese Players’ data will be intact when they join WoW again in August.