Category Archives: China

The Warface development team seems quite pleased with the reception the free-to-play shooter is getting in Russia.

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World of Tanks developer Wargaming.net is making a bid for the mainland Chinese market. Gamasutra reports the company has signed a deal with KongZhong Corporation to publish its range locally. Although Wargaming.net has several popular free to play titles, World of Tanks is the biggie, with up to 450,000 players online simultaneously.

EA has announced plans to launch The Sims Social game in China with Playfish Beijing behind the day-to-day operations and Tencent as the online host through its Qzone platform. The title was released through Facebook in August 2011 and reported 50 million MAU within a few weeks. Total monthly active users at present, according to App Data, rests at 17 million. Thanks, Develop.

A study polling 500 people conducted by Niko Partners had found that 64% of China’s 180 million casual and core gamers pay for their pleasure each month, and the country is outpacing other countries in terms of money spent. The age of those playing games each month is up as well, with those ages 40 and up making up 10% of those surveyed, which suggested a rise in causal games, while the firm denoted a decline in core gamers – which consume over 22 hours of game time a week. Thanks, GI International.

Pearl Research has estimated that during 2011, the online gaming market in China grew 32% to $6.6 billion.

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Blacklight Retribution was one of a number of international investments which paid off for Chinese MMO specialists Perfect World this quarter.

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The PC Gaming Alliance has some good news to share regarding the ever-growing PC market.

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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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