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Lord of the Rings Online coming to China later in the year
Lord of the Rings Online is coming to China later in the year, thanks to CDC Games and their partnership with Turbine. CDC Games is one of the largest online gaming distributors in China, and is said to be a pioneer in the 'free-to-play, pay for merchandise' business model in that country.Despite what are said to be significant changes in the game from the version now played in North America, Europe, Russia and South Korea, the Chinese closed beta has been going very well for CDC with an 80 percent activation rate. These 'significant changes' include an enhanced PvP function, which CDC believes will cater more towards the Chinese playerbase that they already know so well.Considering CDC Games' work with F2P games, we're curious about other 'significant changes' including a new business model for China, although there has been no official word on this.
Despite devastation, Chinese return to online gaming
After the devastating earthquake that took the lives of over 40,000 people in China two weeks ago, the Chinese government is doing all they can to restore civility to over seven million people who were directly affected by one of the largest natural disasters in recent history. In addition to this, we can all rest assured that the MMO market in China didn't miss a beat and is back in full swing.Yes, you heard me right. CDC Games, the Chinese game distributor responsible for the distribution of such popular titles as Shaiya Online, stated recently that its revenues for its online games have rebounded almost immediately. They say their game service was only suspended for three days during the tragedy, and are now back on track to making the income they made previous to the disaster. Whew!
Digimon MMO Coming to North America
It may have been a few years since you heard the catchy theme to the Digimon television show. You may not even accurately recall this Pokemon-esque animation/manga/toy/game empire. But the digi-pets are still out there, and soon they'll be returning to the shores of North America in the form of a pair of Massively Multiplayer Online Games. It's worth noting a few things about the publisher for these games. CDC games is one of an increasing number of companies bridging the online worlds of the East and West. They've brought several popular games from China and Korea here to the states, and are the Eastern publisher for games like Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.The games, Digimon RPG and Digimon RPG2, are pretty much exactly what you'd expect. You take on the role of a Digimon trainer, starting out with a low-level unevolved critter. Your task throughout the game is to tame, train, and evolve your digital pets through combat and conflict. It's a turn-based title, and from the sounds of things still has a fairly active community some five years after the title's release. The wikipedia article (take with a grain of salt) also notes that there is already an active English-playing community on the Korean servers. One would assume, then, that perhaps there's an audience ready for this here in the states? The games are slated for launch in North America later this year.[Via Kotaku]
Comparing subscriptions and microtransactions made easy
While asking for subscription payments is still a popular business model for MMOs, increasingly it's just one option among many. Free-to-play, ad supported, microtransactions, and even straight Real Money Transfers are all being used as viable methods to get people in and playing. Aside from the vigorous debate this issue raises, it's also incredibly challenging to compare games that use subscription-style pricing with free-to-play/microtransaction games. Who counts as a 'player' if theoretically everyone on earth with a PC *could* be playing your game?Over at Gamasutra CDC Games' Ron Williams attempts to answer just that question. Williams offers that there are actually a large number of data points to track when determining the health of an online title, including the total number of unique visitors (UV) to the game's website each month, the number of new players gained each month, the number of new players that convert to paying players, of the game, and (of course) the total number of paying users for the game. He goes on to offer a few theoretical examples of game data to prove out how, given sufficient data, comparisons between apples and oranges are not that hard to make.
Middle-earth expands to the Middle Kingdom
According to a press release from Turbine Entertainment, the MMO maker is partnering with China's CDC Games to bring Lord of the Rings Online: The Shadows of Angmar to Chinese gamers -- a market with a strong affinity for online fantasy games. Turbine has already experienced success with Dungeons & Dragons Online in China and Japan, thanks to some effective content localization, and CDC will use a similar strategy by giving Middle-earth a distinctly Asian makeover. I hope this just means substituting tofu and rice for lembas bread, and not giving Gandalf a Fu Manchu moustache.See also: LOTR Online gameplay footage
