The9, a struggling online game developer in China, has reached an agreement with South Korea's Neowiz to allow Neowiz to exclusively operate The9's game World of Fighter in South Korea.
This is the first time that a computer game developed by The9 has entered the South Korea market.
WOF is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the story of the Three Kingdom period in China. The9 has spent three years in developing the game which features strong rhythm and great visual effects. Zhu Jun, president and CEO of The9 said that The9 is pleased to reach the agreement with Neowiz and he is confident that with Neowiz's strength in operation, WOF will become a very popular game in South Korea.
Lee San Youb, CEO of Neowiz, stated that they are happy to become a partner of The9 and will try their best to make WOF a success in Korea.
Just two weeks ago, The9 announced net revenues for the third quarter of 2009 decreased by 91% quarter-over-quarter and decreased by 94% year-over-year to CNY25.5 million, mainly due to a decrease in revenue from World of Warcraft, for which the company's license agreement expired on June 7, 2009. Rival NetEase.com now operates WoW in China. Gross loss for the third quarter of 2009 was CNY8.1 million, compared to gross profit of CNY64.3 million in the second quarter of 2009 and gross profit of CNY163.0 million in the third quarter of 2008.
