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Final Fantasy XIV, like Nixon, can in fact go to China
The Chinese market for MMOs is immense, but it's also a market that's proven remarkably resistant to foreign intrusion. (We don't need to recount the whole saga of World of Warcraft over there.) But in addition to launching nearly everywhere else, it looks as if Final Fantasy XIV will also be going into the Chinese market in a partnership with Shanda Games Limited. This comes after Square-Enix CEO Yoichi Wada had mentioned a year ago that the company wished to pursue business partnerships with companies inside mainland China. Shanda Games Limited will most likely be operating the servers for the game, which will remain separate from the "normal" servers -- the only region-locked servers that the game is currently set to have, as a point of fact. There's no word on when the game will launch, either, simply that it is in the pipeline for release thanks to the new partnership. The rest of the world, of course, will get to start enjoying Final Fantasy XIV on the 30th (or the 22nd with the collector's edition). [Thanks to FusionX for the tip!]
Free-to-play 'KOF World' to dropkick Asian market
If you've been enjoying SNK's latest, King of Fighters XII, you might be interested to learn that SNK and Shanda Games are teaming up to offer a version of that game for the PC. It's going to be called KOF World, a free-to-play game for the Asian market. Aside from the usual 2D fighting, this new version will also incorporate "MMORPG features by adding a complete multiplayer role playing game (RPG) mode," though exact details on this new mode were not provided. Oh, and if you don't live in Asia, sorry for making you incredibly jealous.
