CDC Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation's (CHINA) China.com, has announced its Online Games Developer Program, which includes US$20 million earmarked for investment in strategic game development partners.
CDC Games will establish strategic relationships with selected franchise partners to accelerate the development of new original online games targeted specifically for the China market. The Online Games Developer Program will be managed by Dr. Xiaowei Chen, Chief Executive Officer of CDC Games and Chief Financial Officer of China.com Inc. The company is now finalizing initial investments in several existing partners.
China.com will select participating developers from Japan, Korea, China, the United States as well as Europe, India and Australia with long-standing, successful track records in the development of top quality and successful online games, and the vision and innovative skill to develop games from the ground up that will be cultural attractive to the vast and growing China gaming user base.
"China is just at the very beginning of its evolution of developing its entertainment, and gaming sector, and we believe the next step is in providing games that are culturally aware, entertaining and educational to the millions of online game users in the China market," said Fred Wang, Chairman for CDC Games and independent director of CDC.
Through direct cash investments, equity investments, lines of credit or a combination of these, CDC Games will invest up to US$20 million in selected game development partners on a case-by-case basis. The investments will be used to help these partners build China culturally aware titles, and will be complemented by market research and game research from CDC Games experienced marketing and research team.
CDC Games currently has over 30 million registered users, which allows it to data mine for specific likes and dislikes among users, to help provide the research to support the selected development partners in building titles that will appeal to the China market.
"Recently CDC Games has visited potential game development partners in Japan, Korea, China and the United States and we were impressed not only by the continual innovation of PC Online games under development for their home and overseas market, but the willingness and eagerness for developers to tap specifically into the largest PC online game market in the world," said Anthony Yip, Vice Chairman for CDC Games and independent director of CDC Games.
