Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Richard Ji from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Richard Ji - Morgan Stanley
Good morning. Congratulations on a great quarter. I have two questions. First, let’s start with your recent development, which is your licensing agreement with Blizzard for Starcraft II. Can you help us to understand a little better about the expected timeline for the launch of this game in China and what is the underlying economics, such as revenue sharing between you and Blizzard, if possible?
Michael Tong
Regarding Blizzard, since there have been a lot of different reports I saw from different analysts, why don’t I go through from the more basic and then we will comment on questions from Richard.
Obviously we have licensed the Warcrafts, the two Warcrafts, the BattleNet, and also Starcraft II, which is going to be a new game, from Blizzard. And it is licensing directly given to an affiliate of NetEase Group, which is the Shanghai Internet Company, and there will be a joint venture to be established between Blizzard and NetEase to support the operating of the platforms, the BattleNet and the three games.
In very general terms, the two Warcrafts are very famous real-time strategy games -- they are not MMORPGs -- that have been launched ever since around 2003. And real-time strategy games in general are strategy games where users build different kinds of resources, like gold and mines and troops and weapons, of course, and to compete with computers and other players. A typical multi-player RTS game includes around two to eight players and last around -- it could be half an hour to one hour to two hours. And the BattleNet has been the platform for players to seek other players on the Internet for competition and for games. And such a community has been very large, both worldwide and also in China. And of course, the deal or the licensing is most importantly focusing on the platform and also the new game, which was Starcraft II, and Starcraft II of course is a continuation of the original Starcraft, which has been hugely popular both worldwide and also in China as well.
Regarding the timeline, I’m sorry that we won’t be able to comment on that, and also the underlying economics in terms of how is the revenue sharing or how the business model is going to be, we also won’t be able to comment on that.
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