Shanda (SNDA) says that more than 150,000 EZ Pods have been pre-ordered from Shanda's own distribution channel. The EZ Pod product includes EZ Center software and a remote control that together upgrade the standard PC platform to an interactive entertainment platform, allowing users to browse full-screen applications on a PC through a new user interface with simple intuitive menus, large text and clear graphics.

The EZ Pod was commercially launched on December 1 at a suggested retail price of CNY458.

The EZ Pod is an integral part of Shanda's EZ entertainment platform, which provides a wide range of users access to rich interactive content, including TV programs, movie, music, karaoke, game, news, literary, financial, e-commerce and educational content.

As part of its efforts to deliver more entertainment offerings that are tailored for its EZ Center platform, Shanda today announced the introduction of nine new in-house developed online casual games that are being developed primarily for the EZ Station and the EZ Pod.

The newly introduced casual games, which are in various stages of development and testing, are Shanda Richman, an online Monopoly-style game; Energy Cart, a cartoon-style car racing game; Kungfu Kid, a kungfu combat game with a built-in avatar system; Chinese Heroes, a 3D online game with a rich cast of characters from Chinese folklore and history; BBQ, a round-by-round strategy game; Superstar and Pop King, two music based games, and Reng Xiang Zi and Tui Tui Xia, two cartoon style puzzle games.

"Following Intel's memorandum of understanding with us to jointly promote and distribute 500,000 units of EZ Center/EZ Pod over the next 12 months, we're pleased with initial response to the EZ Pod from our own regional distribution channels," said Tianqiao Chen, CEO of Shanda. "In addition, the introduction of nine new casual games demonstrates our commitment to developing healthy and entertaining games that can be enjoyed by the entire family in the living room."