In a recent interview with ChangYou’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Mr Tan Dewen, he candidly answered some questions about the China online gaming giant’s plans for 2012 and the near future. For 2011, Duke of Mount Deer Online (link) was the company’s flagship title (but revenue was not high from what I heard). ChangYou’s main source of income is still currently from Tian Long Ba Bu, also known as Dragon Oath in the English market (link). Below are some other answers given by this executive.
– 2012 titles in China currently include Peach Garden Online (link), Q Water Margin 2, EA’s Battlefield Online, KARCASS and a self-develop MMORPG.
– KARCASS, now known as Dark Blood Online in Korea, is a Diablo-like title imported from Korea with more blood and gore than usual games. aiming the mature gamers’ market. Compared to other titles in the top-view genre, the action will be much faster.
– KARCASS is currently going through localizing and the addition of localized content, hence giving the game an edge over competitors with games of similar genre. It is expected to go live only in 2013.
– ChangYou is currently developing an action MMORPG using Crytek’s CryEngine 3. The storyline is based on a novel, <<搜神记>>, or loosely translated as “God Searching Chronicles”. The game’s title has not been confirmed though.
– This CryEngine 3 action MMORPG will definitely not be going live this year, but it is possible to have an appearance at this year’s ChinaJoy (end July).
– Last year, the only Western games making waves were ChangYou obtaining Battlefield Online and World of Tanks (under another publisher). Mr Tan stated that the reason why Western games failed in China is due to lack of localized content. Using Battlefield Online (below) as an example, he said that despite getting the rights over a year ago, localization of content is currently still going on.
