THE latest expansion of World of Warcraft (WoW), one of the most popular online games on the Chinese mainland, has won approval from the top regulator to enter the domestic market, almost a year after the Western market, a local government bureau said yesterday.

The WoW's second expansion, "Wrath of the Lich King" (WLK), operated by NetEase.com Inc, was approved after a number of changes to "unhealthy and violent" tasks and characters, according to industry sources.

The new expansion was approved by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP).

It is expected to debut in China in August and September, industry officials said.

WoW, which had 5 million players at its peak, is expected to attract at least 2 million players after the WLK is released in China.

Until then, mainland WoW players had to go to Taiwan servers to play the new WLK expansion but had to put up with slow access and the loss of familiar "friends" in game.

The new expansion will contribute to the growth of the domestic game market, analysts said.

"Despite the concern over an industry slowdown, most CEOs expect China's online game industry to grow 20 to 30 percent each year in the coming future," said Richard Ji, an analyst at Morgan Stanley.

NetEase, which replaced The9 to operate WoW on the mainland in June last year, is thought by many to have been the victim of two government agencies' battle for control.

After NetEase got the operation rights from WoW developer Blizzard Entertainment last year, two Chinese government bureaus, GAPP and the Ministry of Culture, both claimed they had the rights to review and approve WoW and had differing opinions about allowing it to continue.

This struggle between the two had delayed the approval process of WLK, industry officials and players said on online forums.