Category Archives: China

Trion Worlds and Chinese Internet firm Shanda Games have entered into an agreement which will see the release of RIFT in China. Shanda will hold the exclusive license for RIFT localized in Mandarin, a deal which Trion CEO Lars Buttler called “a huge step for Western premium games in China.” Trion’s expansion to Asia follows the firm’s recent $85 million round of equity financing, which will also help the firm along as it develops its consumer platform and full-scale publishing and development platform Red Door, later this year. The release of RIFT in Mainland China will be announced at a later date.

Pre-orders have gone live for Vita in Hong Kong, apparently creating a level of delirium intense enough “jam” online stores and “mob” retail outlets, according to a Joystiq-filtered Engadget China report.

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Cryptic’s parent company, Chinese online game developer Perfect World, has reported a rise in profits for the quarter of 587.7 million CNY ($92.1 million), which is up from 486.9 million CNY the prior year. The firm also reported an increase in revenues of 708.9 million CNY ($112 million), up from 579.2 million CNY yoy. All figures were in line with company guidance, reports Gamasutra. “While focusing on further enhancing the content of our portfolio is necessary for our healthy long-term growth, this decision did slow our revenues for the third quarter on a sequential basis. But our third quarter results still represent solid year-over-year revenue growth of 22.4%,” said according to chairman and CEO Michael Chi.

World of Warcraft’s Chinese operator, NetEase, has posted a 39.8% increase in year-over-year revenue, noting a profit rise of 41.3% to $128.2 million and revenues of $308.3 million. The upswing for the quarter ending September 30 is despite the decline in subscription numbers for the Blizzard MMO, which were down 800,000 to 10.3 million for the start of Activision’s Q3 financial period. The publisher attributed the loss of subs to the Asian market, which, at the end of Q2, helped bolster the subscription numbers to 11.1 million. Thanks, Gamasutra.

After reading Nathan’s epic David Jaffe interview, I am incapable of digesting anything larger than bite-sized.

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Apple plans to release a less expensive iPhone 4 within weeks, in order to nab lower-end customers in emerging markets such as China.

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VentureBeat‘s reporting that Rovio has partnered with Madhouse to help bring Angry Birds to China. The ad network will help push the mobile marketing campaign for the game in the country. Since its 2009 launch, Angry Birds has seen 12 million units sold from the App Store.

According to a survey conducted in China, despite the recent hacking attacks on Sony’s PSN service, the firm is still considered one of the most valued brands in the country.

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You made it! Just a little further, son. The weekend glitters at the edge of your straining reach. Have a go at these nibbles for starters.

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When it’s not making Alice: Madness Returns, American McGee has said his Shanghai-based studio Spicy Horse is poised to capitalise on one of the largest markets in gaming today – in its own way.

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EA has announced that Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Tournament, has been added to QQ’s new Game Center, a division of Tencent.

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A new report from games industry market analyst firm Pearl Research suggests Internet cafes are still a major motivator in Asian game markets.

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Alice: Madness Returns is the last traditional AAA outing for designer American McGee for the foreseeable future, as Spicy Horse announces its intention to target the free-to-play market.

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Ahead of the full release to members next week, the PC Gaming Alliance has published an extract from its Horizons Report at GDC, and things are looking up for fans of the Original Platform.

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Chinese World of Warcraft provider NetEase has reported significant increases in sales and profit since taking over from The9.

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The ESA has named Brazil, China, France, Italy and Spain as the five countries with “extraordinarily high” levels of online game piracy.

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French website GameBlog has found an online site for an amusement park in the Wunjin district of China called World Joyland, and according to translations from G4 the park’s theme is based on Blizzard games.

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Sony Computer Entertainment is reportedly expanding into China, opening facilities in the city of Guangzhou and tentatively planning a local launch of the PlayStation 3, previously unavailable to mainland Chinese residents except by import.

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Nintendo has managed to secure a release of 3DS in China via distributor iQue, according to a Gamrade report.

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A report issued by iResearch has concluded that  China’s Web game market will more than double to $750 million by 2013 as Internet usage expands along with the casual game space.

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