Video gaming market adds CDC Games - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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CDC Games is looking to become a majorf international publisher of multiplayer onlinevideo games. In the company, which has more than 100 millio playersin China, is planning to invest up to $100 millionh in video game development here and abroad. Heading up the new CDC Gamess USA is former software architect Ron He says the company is hiring 40 or so game developerw and project managers and hopes to partnet withthe state's universities to hire part-time studentf talent.
In deciding to open a headquartersin Atlanta, Williamss says, the company concludede that the city had "the righty mix of talent and cost of In addition, Atlanta is already a hub for CDC parent company, (Nasdaq: CHINA), a business softwarw developer with 2,500 employees worldwide. Eventually, William says, CDC Games will get into direct publishinyhere -- producing its own games. But for the time the company will license other studio's games, helping to launch and market titles Within a month, CDC Games will release the multiplayee online fantasy game "Battle of in the United States and is working on another titl for release by the end of the year.
The plan callz for six releases in the United Stateas by the endof 2008. As for investments, the companyy has already taken minority interests in two the Chinese-based "Yulgang" and Australian-based "Fury." Williams expects more to CDC Games also is localizingt games, changing language, for example, to suit culturapl differences. Plus, certain game-play nuances are oftem needed. In addition, the company had to recentlhy remove blood splatterings from a violent videok game so it could be releasesin China. The government there has strict laws governinhmedia content. The company publishes "The Lord of the Rings Online" and "EVdE Online" in China.
"EVE Online," produced by Iceland-based CCP hf, which also has its American headquarterxsin Atlanta, is a science fictiobn multiplayer online game with more than 190,000 global players. CDC Games helpedf pioneer the "free to play" model in Asia that has gamerse playing for free but payin for virtual items suchas weapons. Over Valentine'zs Day, CDC Games' Yulgang sold hundreds of thousands of virtuall wedding dresses to gamers for a fewcentes each. The online game, which encouragesz cooperation and teamworkbetween players, has seen tremendous success sincr launching in 2005 and now has 42 million users in Asia.
While still in its infanc in theUnited States, Williams predicts the free-to-play model will somedah be mainstream here. "In Southeast Asia, it's incredibly popular," Williams said. "They're years ahead of us. But we thinko the U.S. is heading into that spacre pretty rapidly." Although data isn't availabls on free to play, online gaming as a whol e is on firein China. Market researchg firm IDC says online game subscriptions in the country will increasefrom $673 million in 2006 to $2.1 billion in 2010. There are some companies in the U.S. free-to-play including Atlanta-based The Virtual World of Kanevazat .
The company, formed last year by technolog entrepreneurChristopher Klaus, is less of a game and more of a socialo experience like virtual world Second Life. Kaneva, which went into open beta testinfin March, plans on charging for itemd such as apartment upgrades. In addition, Finland-based , which operatew the virtual world for teensat , has already been successfupl here. Sulake is expectedd to post $75 million in real money in 2007 from sellinhgvirtual goods, according to published reports.
Ian Bogost, a professorf of digital media at Georgia Tech and CEOof , an onlinw game focusing on social and politicaol issues, says the cultures in China and particularlh in South Korea -- perhapd the hottest game market in the world -- are drivingh big growth in the online game While the average casual gamer in the United States primarilt plays console games, Asians have adoptedr Internet gaming as a social experience, he says. It'z somewhat akin to the "arcade of the late 1970s and earlh 1980s, Bogost says, when American youthg would socialize in videogame parlors. Since the introduction of game consolex such as andSony PlayStation, that has virtually disappeared here.
In Korea, onlinew gaming is so popular that top gamers are consideredcelebrities there. Korean youthh even go on videogame dates. "If the averagde North American describes avideo game, they talk aboutt the thing you connect to the TV rathed than a network PC game with thousands of people interacting," Bogost said. "In China or it's the opposite." As for the free-to-playy market, Bogost predicts Americans willcatcgh on. Albeit slowly. "Americans seem ready to spendx small amounts of money forvirtual gimmickry," he "But it's not yet a mainstream ideal.
" A look at CDC Gamezs USA: One of the biggest publishers of onlined games there, with more than 100 million players Introducing Asian online games in United Statesw and U.S. games into Asia CDC Games, staff research