皇冠体育app

   

Vivendi to offer more games despite piracy

By Liu Baijia (皇冠体育app Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-16 10:00

Vivendi Games, the developer of the world's most popular massive online game, World of Warcraft (WoW), will continue to launch games in 皇冠体育app despite industry fears of rampant piracy stifling earnings.

Bruce Hack, CEO of the Los Angeles-based Vivendi Games, said in an interview in Beijing that three of his company's four units Blizzard Entertainment, Sierra Online, and Vivendi Games Mobile are all thinking about introducing new games into 皇冠体育app.

Meanwhile, rival game firms are still balking at entering a market plagued by piracy and rip-offs.

Sierra Entertainment, which focuses on console games like Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation, has no immediate plans to bring games to 皇冠体育app. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have not launched their products in the country.

"皇冠体育app is a big priority for us," said Hack. "It is a big market for us today and it will be a bigger market for us tomorrow."

While many other international game developers such as the French firm Ubisoft and US-based Electronics Arts were afraid of piracy in 皇冠体育app, Vivendi Games sensed the opportunity in the online game market in 2003 and signed Shanghai-based The9 Limited to run its WoW in 2004.

皇冠体育app's online game market almost tripled from 2003's 1.32 billion yuan (US$159 million) to 3.73 billion yuan in 2005 (US$450 million), according to the US market intelligence firm International Data Corp.

It was reported that NASDAQ-listed The9 agreed to pay US$51.3 million in four years in licensing fees and give 22 per cent of its revenues from the operation of WoW to Blizzard Entertainment.
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