Still a winner: World of Warcraft

economy - Gaming industry losing traction

Making a profit in China is often a challenge and the gaming industry has for years been the example of a way to generate revenue with low margins and high volume on the internet. Biilsdue summerizes a tough week for the three major players, Shanda, The9 and Netease and paints a gloomy picture.
He gives seven reasons why the three big players are getting a beating:

4. The free model has taken off here and is really making in dent in all the games except, it appears, World of Warcraft. And the dominant incumbents are going to have a hard time cannibalizing their fee revenue games to compete with the free ones.

Well, that argument sounds familiar for more industries.