Gamasutra - The China Angle: Wii Piracy, World Of Warcraft Beaten?
Zhengtu - Most Profitable Game?
Shanghai based online game company Zhengtu Network's tax form showed that the company is recording monthly revenues of 160 million Yuan ($20.7 million) and monthly profit of 120 million Yuan ($15.52 million), reports DoNews.com.
Zhengtu Network's in-house developed MMORPG Zhengtu Online recorded 2.8 million daily active players and 860,265 peak concurrent users (PCU) on March 23, making it the second most popular game in China in terms of PCU, after Netease' Fantasy Westward Journey.
In comparison, China's World of Warcraft operator The9 recorded 680,000 PCU and US$36.1 million in revenues for the game in fourth quarter of 2006.
Zhengtu is free to play and charges for virtual items, but many gamers have complained that the game is the most expensive in China. Zhengtu takes advantage of players' thirst for power by placing no limits on player kill (PK) and allowing players to purchase powerful virtual items.
Consequently, the game population is divided into powerful paying players and prey. It is common for players to spend over 1000 Yuan ($129) a month on virtual items and there are reports that some have spent millions of yuan on the game.
Coincidentally, Chinese game developer Red Mushroom's CEO Bill Bishop posted an April Fools joke on WoW hunting. In his joke, Bishop claimed that several wealthy WoW players organized real life hunts in China with human as prey.
