UPDATE: Roughly 15 hours after it first appeared, Blizzard removed Patch 1.60.1.69407 from wnev12. The TACT product and its CDN routes facing China remain registered, while wowdev2 still carries the build. The reason for the temporary assignment remains unknown but certainly fuels speculations even more!
Only two hours after vendor product wowdev2 was updated to Patch 1.60.1.69407, the same Camelot build version became the first publicly recorded version for wownev12 – a product explicitly aimed at China. Is this a hint at Blizzard preparing a global Classic+ release?
Two Vendor Product Updates Within Hours
On August 20, wowdev2, the first publicly observed product to carry the 1.60 Camelot patch last year, moved to Patch 1.60.1.69407, continuing the 1.60.1 branch. It is speculated that this could be Blizzard’s internal deployment environment, so changes here indicate active Camelot development.
Shortly after, wownev12 received the same exact version. While many other parameters differ from wowdev2, such as BuildConfig or CDNConfig, the same build ID connects both products to the same Camelot build revision.
What Is wownev12?
Just like wowdev2 and wowdev5, wownev12 is a TACT product code. The first public CDN-manifest record for wownev12 appeared on April 15 this year, which means that it existed before the 1.60 deployment.
Product: wownev12 Region: cn Version: 1.60.1.69407 Build ID: 69407 BuildConfig: db9735ccd1bae5ab73cb37a25fe33247 CDNConfig: bf48749000b7b9d555ecd84b4e43da93 ProductConfig: 3b1d6461c263c01147c1a4dd19c14602 CDN path: tpr/wowvcn China CDN host: blzdist-wow.necdn.leihuo.netease.com Key name: wow_vendor_cn_01 Supported locales: enUS, zhCN Windows executable: WoWGMChina.exeHowever, wownev12‘s manifest includes a Chinese route to blzdist-wow.necdn.leihuo.netease.com, meaning that this deployment is most likely the first recorded assignment of Camelot to a Chinese product. Several variables reinforce this conclusion: wownev12‘s key name is wow_vendor_cn_01, supported locales include both enUS and zhCN, and the game’s executable is named WoWGMChina.exe.
Chinese Localization or Regulatory Approval?
Back in April 2024, NetEase announced the renewal of its partnership with Blizzard Entertainment (our coverage), so seeing a NetEase route in wownev12‘s CDN manifest doesn’t come as a surprise whatsoever. What’s far more interesting is the possible reason for an early China-facing deployment.
Over the years, Blizzard has faced challenges surrounding China’s local regulations regarding certain depictions, including gore, skulls, and bones (as seen in the Chinese version of Maldraxxus). Sharing internal builds with its Chinese partner could point towards early localization and steps to prepare for potential review by the NPPA, China’s National Press and Publication Administration, which handles approvals for imported online games.
A Strong Camelot Case
The deployment to wownev12 adds another thick layer to our product-based speculation of the last few weeks. The Chinese Titan Reforged megaserver was described as “igniting strong enthusiasm among local players” in NetEase’s Q3 2025 results release, and NetEase previously said that Chinese players would experience the next major Classic “plus-like” content alongside the rest of the world. Overall, it would make absolute sense for Blizzard to include the Chinese community in whatever the 1.60 Camelot project turns out to be!
