GameLook.com

COG will present at Gstar with nearly 10 games including ‘Soul of Iron’ and ‘War of Glory’

November 8th, 2011

Eric Hong

G-star will be open on Nov 10, 2011 at Busan. COG, as the professional platform for publishing China’s top online games, will present at Gstar BTB exhibition area with 8 games such as ‘Soul of Iron’ and ‘War of Glory’ to end the world tour of 2011.

Gstar attracts a lot of exhibitors for its magnificent scale and unique business opportunies. e. This year 380 companies from 28 countries all over the world will be engaged in the Gstar. And all the exhibition booths have been reserved before September. It is the second year for COG to join the exhibition. Comparing to former years, the product line becomes more various. Besides the well-known ‘War of Glory’, ‘Three Swordsmen’, ‘Miracle Continent’, ‘Soul of Iron’ and‘King of Swordsman’, which are signed by COG recently, will present their debut at Gstar.

Shanda Announces Receipt of Non-Binding Proposal to Acquire All Outstanding Public Shares at $41.35 per ADS in Cash

October 17th, 2011

Eric Hong

Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited, incorporated in the Cayman Islands (“Shanda” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: SNDA), a leading interactive entertainment media company in China, today announced that its Board of Directors has received a preliminary non-binding proposal letter from Mr. Tianqiao Chen, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Shanda, to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares of the Company not currently owned, legally or beneficially, by Mr. Tianqiao Chen, his wife Ms. Qianqian Luo, who is also a non-executive director of Shanda and his brother Mr. Danian Chen, who is also the Chief Operating Officer and a director of Shanda (together, the “Buyer Group”), for US$41.35 per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) or $20.675 per ordinary share in cash. As of September 30, 2011, the Buyer Group controlled approximately 68.4% of the outstanding shares of the Company (excluding outstanding options of the Company).

NetDragon Announces 2011 Second Quarter and Interim Results

August 25th, 2011

Eric Hong

NetDragon Websoft Inc. (“NetDragon”; Stock Code: 777), a leading developer and operator of online games and mobile Internet applications in China, today announced its unaudited interim financial results for the period ended June 30, 2011. Additionally, a management conference call and live webcast is scheduled at 7:00 PM Hong Kong time, August 25, 2011 to review financial results and recent business developments.

Second Quarter 2011 Financial and Operational Highlights

Net Revenue was RMB184.3 million, an increase of 17.6 % over the first quarter of 2011 (“QoQ”), and an increase of 53.4% over the second quarter of 2010 (“YoY”)
Revenue from Online Games was RMB174.9 million, an increase of 16.1% QoQ and an increase of 45.6% YoY
Revenue from Mobile Internet was RMB9.4 million, an increase of 54.8% QoQ and an increase of 2,250% YoY

Perfect World completes acquisition of Cryptic Studios

August 11th, 2011

daniel

Chinese MMO developer Perfect World has completed its acquisition of Cryptic Studios from Atari. The deal was announced in May, with Perfect World paying around €35 million ($50.2m/£30m) in cash for the company. “This strategic acquisition will add attractive game titles to our portfolio, which will help us further penetrate into the US and global [...]

Tencent Announces 2011 Second Quarter and Interim Results

August 10th, 2011

Eric Hong

Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent” or the “Company”, SEHK 00700), a leading provider of Internet and mobile & telecommunications value-added services in China, today announced the unaudited consolidated results for the second quarter and the first half year of 2011 ended June 30, 2011.

Highlights of the First Half of 2011:

Total revenues were RMB13,077.5 million (USD2,020.7 million(1)), an increase of 47.0% over the first half of year endedJune 30, 2010 (“YoY”).
Revenues from Internet value-added services (“IVAS”) were RMB10,637.9 million (USD1,643.8 million), an increase of 52.6% YoY.
Revenues from mobile & telecommunications value-added services (“MVAS”) were RMB1,571.6 million (USD242.9 million), an increase of 21.6% YoY.
Revenues from online advertising were RMB793.2 million (USD122.6 million), an increase of 31.8% YoY.
Gross profit was RMB8,552.1 million (USD1,321,5 million), an increase of 40.6% YoY. Gross margin decreased to 65.4% from 68.4% for the first half of 2010.
Operating profit was RMB6,170.4 million (USD953.5 million), an increase of 36.5% YoY. Operating margin decreased to 47.2% from 50.8% for the first half of 2010.
Non-GAAP operating profit(2) was RMB6,317.8 million (USD976.2 million), an increase of 32.7% YoY. Non-GAAP operating margin decreased to 48.3% from 53.5% for the first half of 2010.
Profit for the period was RMB5,227.5 million (USD807.8 million), an increase of 40.0% YoY. Net margin decreased to 40.0% from 42.0% for the first half of 2010.
Non-GAAP profit for the period(2) was RMB5,296.1 million (USD818.4 million), an increase of 33.4% YoY. Non-GAAP net margin decreased to 40.5% from 44.6% for the first half of 2010.
Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company was RMB5,219.6 million (USD806.5 million), an increase of 41.1% YoY.
Non-GAAP profit attributable to equity holders of the Company(2) was RMB5,271.5 million (USD814.6 million), an increase of 34.0% YoY.
Basic earnings per share were RMB2.863. Diluted earnings per share were RMB2.800.

Shanda Games’ “Dragon Nest” was Recognized With Three Major 2011 Asia Online Game Awards

August 10th, 2011

daniel

August 10, 2011 Shanda Games Limited (“Shanda Games”) (Nasdaq: GAME), a leading online game developer, operator and publisher in China, announced today that one of its leading games, Dragon Nest, received “China Most Popular Online Game Award”, “Asia Best Design Award”, and “Asia Best Technology Award” at the Asia Online Game Awards Ceremony organized by [...]

Giant Interactive Announces Second Quarter Fiscal 2011 Results

August 9th, 2011

Eric Hong

Giant Interactive Group Inc. , one of China’s leading online game developers and operators, announced today its unaudited financial results for the second fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2011.

Second Quarter 2011 Highlights:

Net revenue was RMB436.2 million (US$67.5 million), an increase of 8.2% from the first quarter 2011 and an increase of 35.6% from the second quarter 2010.

Gross profit was RMB372.8 million (US$57.7 million), an increase of 9.5% from the first quarter 2011 and an increase of 35.7% from the second quarter 2010. Gross profit margin for the second quarter 2011 was 85.5%.

Net income attributable to the Company’s shareholders was RMB10.2 million (US$1.6 million), a decrease of 96.1% from the first quarter 2011 and a decrease of 94.5% from the second quarter 2010, which was due to the one-time accrued withholding tax associated with the repatriation of cash for a significant special dividend intended to be paid to shareholders during the third quarter 2011. The margin of net income attributable to the Company’s shareholders for the second quarter 2011 was 2.3%.[...]

Giant Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

August 9th, 2011

Eric Hong

Giant Interactive Group Inc. (NYSE: GA), one of China’s leading online game developers and operators, today announced the appointment of Jazy Zhang as chief financial officer effective August 9, 2011. Ms. Zhang replaces Eric He, who has decided to leave Giant to pursue other opportunities.

Ms. Zhang brings with her over seventeen years of extensive experience in executive management, finance and accounting roles including significant positions at a big four accounting firm and several prominent NASDAQ listed U.S. companies. Ms. Zhang was most recently the chief financial officer of Shanghai Storm Entertainment, a venture capital invested pre-IPO online game company in China. During her tenure at the company, which she joined in November 2009, Ms. Zhang led the process to greatly strengthen the company’s financial management, reporting and internal control process in preparation for a future U.S. IPO. Previously, Ms. Zhang served as the director of accounting at NASDAQ listed Magma Design Automation, Inc. Prior to joining Magma Design Automation, Ms. Zhang held finance and accounting management positions at Nassda Corporation, Brocade Communications, Inc. and Tumbleweed Communications, and worked for five and a half years at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Los Angeles and San Jose, California. Ms. Zhang is a U.S. certified public accountant and holds a masters of business taxation from the University of Southern California and a bachelors of science in engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

UltiZen Games Aligns with GREE

August 8th, 2011

Eric Hong

Today UltiZen Games Limited Shanghai (Headquarters: China Shanghai; CEO: Lan Haiwen; “UltiZen”), China browser and smartphone game developer and publisher announced the alliance with GREE, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Founder and Chief Executive Officer: Yoshikazu Tanaka; Listed in the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange; Code: 3632; “GREE”).
GREE aspires to offering the “No.1″ community service which is widely utilized by the people all over the world by providing good quality contents to more users through the social game platforms for smartphones.

Under such circumstances, with the purpose of strengthening GREE’s developing ability of good quality contents and social games, GREE has formed a business collaboration with UltiZen which has bases in Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo and deploys the game development service. And today, both companies have entered into an agreement to acquire some of the shares of capital stock of UltiZen for further business collaboration and strengthening the relationship with UltiZen.

“We are very excited to align with GREE, the world leading mobile social network service provider,” said Lan Haiwen, chief executive officer at UltiZen. “The alliance opens an over 100 million user-based mobile social network for UltiZen to develop creative and interesting smartphone contents for. After GREE being the shareholder of UltiZen, the partnership between GREE and UltiZen could be even more fruitful.”

GameLook China MMO Game Monthly Report [July 2011]

August 8th, 2011

Eric Hong

GameLook China MMO Game Monthly Report [July 2011]

Research

China’s Online Games Publishing Industry to Reach 57.8 Billion Yuan in 2015

iResearch: 2011Q2 China’s customer online game market size arrived 9.48 billion Yuan

CNNIC: China’s online gamers stood at 311 million in June, 2011

Analysys: China’s net client games revenue reached 8.7 billion RMB in 2011Q2

ChinaJoy2011

ChinaJoy2011: Viewpoints of First Day Summit Forum

ChinaJoy2011: Viewpoints of First Day Summit Forum 2

South Korean Games Companies Made US$9.75 million Deal in ChinaJoy2011

ChinaJoy2011:Director of General Administration of Press and Publication Shoushan Sun’s speech abstract in Chinajoy

ChinaJoy2011:Ming Zong, Vice Minister of Shanghai Publicity Department

MMO Game Company News Last Month

Tencent

Tencent acquires Blade and Sword OL 2 from Pixel Soft, to be tested in August

Investing war of Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu

Tencent: TGA e-Sports League to become internationalized

Tencent’s League of Legends Enters Open Beta Today

Tencent Confirms Blade & Soul’s Attendence at ChinaJoy 2011 Today

Riot Games, Tencent’s Subsidiary, Announces to Enter Korea

Tencent Accquires NBA2K OL, 1st Closed Beta is About to Begin

Tencent to Begin Open Test of League of Legends: Starcraft 2 is in the Way

MIRAE ASSET:Tencent’s League of Legends touched 700K PCU

Tencent Acquires 15.68 % of Kingsoft in Strategic Investment

Perfect World to Launch Unlimited Closed Beta Testing for “Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber” on August 18

August 5th, 2011

daniel

Perfect World to Launch Unlimited Closed Beta Testing for “Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber” on August 18

Perfect World Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: PWRD) recently announced it will launch unlimited closed beta testing for Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber, the company’s 2D martial arts MMORPG, on August 18, 2011.

Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber is Perfect World’s first 2D martial arts MMORPG. Adapted from Louis Cha’s acclaimed novel of the same name and based on Perfect World’s “AX” technology, the game will present gamers with an exciting and sophisticated world of martial arts.

Mr. Michael Chi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Perfect World, commented, “The Chinese martial arts, or ‘Kungfu,’ are one of China’s greatest cultural legacies, and continue to hold special significance among the Chinese population all over the world. As Perfect World’s new martial arts title, Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber is elaborately developed to delight players with exciting content and an unforgettable gaming experience. In the future, Perfect World will continue utilizing high-quality global resources to deliver outstanding game masterpieces to players around the world.”

GameLook China Social Games Monthly Report [July 2011]

August 4th, 2011

Eric Hong

GameLook China Social Games Monthly Report [July 2011]

Tencent Pengyou.com’s popular games this month

According to statistics from Tencent Pengyou.com, Zynga’s CityVille has performed well since it launched on July 26 and it now ranks 6. GameLook believes Tencent will do everything to make CityVille a big success to attract more foreign games giants.

Kunlun has three TOP10 games on Pengyou last month. Hoolai’s Hoolai Three Kingdoms ranks the third. ismole’s Ninja Village ranks the forth and it will enter QZone soon. KingNet has two TOP10 games and Shenma Three Kingdoms is a new game. Fanhou’s HomeWorld ranks the first.

Renren’s popular games this month

Renren’s game user counting system is special in that it is based on most active users. Fanhou’s puzzle game Fairy Tale City ranks the first, which is very impressive considering its HomeWorld on Pengyou. 5minutes’ Little Anchor ranks the tenth and Kingnet’s Pirates King Hook Ups ranks the eighth. The recent popular fishing game Fishing Tatsujin ranks the second. Fishing games are much diversified and many developers have made similar games.

Social Network

Tencent

Tencent’s biggest movement this month was the launching of open mobile flash gaming platform.Tencent’s VP announced that their open platform had nearly 80,000 registered developers since it launched a month ago. Currently 40,000 applications are entering the platform and 3 game applications have 10 million users respectively. Tencent’s social platform has 100 million active users and some games have already got revenue of 10 million Yuan.

Tencent Launched Mobile Flash Gaming Platform

Tencent Pengyou.com change its Chinese name to “PengYou”

[IMPORTANT NOTE]: The preparations for app access to Qzone

Tencent Suffers a Net Loss of RMB 10+ Million after Acquiring Comsenz

Sina

Sina is quickening its pace in opening its gaming platform. The micro gaming platform will be opened in August and it will be free for all developers in the first year.
Sina Weibo launched micro gaming platform

Sina to Issue Virtual Currency in the Third Quarter [...]

Valve confirms to release DOTA 2 this year

August 4th, 2011

daniel

Valve confirms to release DOTA 2 this year

Valve will finally lift the lid on DOTA 2 during a tournament at Gamescom later this month, with the game due on shelves “later this year”. Sources have confirmed that some Chinese e-sports teams had received DOTA 2 clients to test the game.

Insiders believe there are 5 million DOTA players in China and most of them are young gamers. Several DOTA type games have emerged in recent years, like LOL, Three Countries for Commandeer and Dream of Three Ancient Kingdoms, which are quite popular.

DOTA 2’s operation authority in China has sparked severe competing from Tencent, Shangda Games, NetEase, Untx and Qihoo 360.

Softstar’s Scar of the Sky OL to fail again in China

August 4th, 2011

daniel

Softstar’s Scar of the Sky OL to fail again in China

3D MMORPG Scar of the Sky OL, which was developed by Softstar Inc and operated by Shanghai Ferry Game, will cease operations soon. The game, like XianJian QiXia Zhuan OL (also known as The Legend of Sword and Fairy), has been online for less than half a year; both games are Softstar’s products and both have failed in the China market.

Though Softstar keeps failing in the online games industry, its PC game XianJian QiXia Zhuan 5 is a big success in China and has already sold 800,000 copies. Softstar has changed its agent to Baiyou in China this year.