A story on Yahoo! Tech reports World of Warcraft would be allowed a partial relaunch in China on July 30, though it is not clear at this time if Chinese WoW operator NetEase would conduct the partial relaunch, just that this would be permitted. The game has been on an extended hiatus in China after Blizzard switched Chinese partners, leading to speculation, later refuted, that the game's Chinese relaunch faced legal hurdles. This new report suggests that legal issues may indeed be playing into the delayed revival of the game in China, as though China's cultural ministry has approved the game, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has demanded content changes:

But GAPP will allow World of Warcraft to open up for "internal testing" while the content changes are still in progress, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed GAPP official.

Players who already have accounts will be allowed to play the game starting late next week, but new players will be barred from signing up until the game gets final clearance, the report said. NetEase will not be allowed to charge subscription fees during that period, which is meant to ensure a smooth transition of user data from the operator switch, the official was cited as saying.

It was not immediately clear if NetEase would conduct the partial relaunch, which the report only said would be permitted. Blizzard and NetEase did not immediately reply to requests for comment.