chinese-history posts

Perfect World continues Southeast Asia business expansion

by James Egan Jun 19th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Historical, MMO industry, News items

When "online gaming" and "Asia" are mentioned in the same sentence, it's a safe bet that either Korea or China are going to be mentioned. But the countries of Southeast Asia are also hotbeds of MMORPG fandom, a fact that's not lost on game companies operating elsewhere in the continent.

Chinese game publisher Perfect World has struck a deal that will allow for greater expansion into Southeast Asia. The licensing agreement has been made with Malaysian online game operator Cubinet, which will bring Perfect World's title Chi Bi to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Cubinet will handle the localization of Chi Bi for the various Southeast Asian gaming markets, offering the game in Chinese, English, Vietnamese, and Thai. Chi Bi is a fantasy MMORPG based on the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. The title's introduction to the SE Asian markets follows Perfect World II, Legend of Martial Arts, and Zhu Xian, and marks another potentially lucrative pairing between Perfect World and Cubinet.

Tags: asia, china, chinese-history, cubinet, cubizone, history, korea, localization, malaysia, market, perfect-world, se-asia, singapore, southeast-asia, thailand, three-kingdoms, vietnam

Sho Online journeys west

by James Egan Apr 28th 2008 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Historical, New titles, Free-to-play, Sho Online

Korean MMO developer Lizard Interactive has announced that Sho Online, a fantasy MMO loosely based on historical events in ancient China, will begin open beta testing on April 30th.

The open beta will kick off with three events -- 'Quest for the Mysterious Talisman', 'Who's the best?' and 'The King of the Forum' -- which will allow testers to win unique in-game items, available only through these events.

Sho Online is actively played in South Korea and Japan, following its initial release in 2006. The 7-day closed beta testing of the English client last month introduced 1000 players to siege warfare between factions of the Yin and Zhou Dynasties, as well as Sho Online's rank promotion and item enhancement systems.

Byung-Wook Kim, Project Manager for Sho Online, recently spoke with IGN about what makes the game distinctive from other fantasy titles on the market.

Tags: chinese-history, classes, fantasy, historical, lizard-interactive, open-beta, sho-online, yin, zhou

Chinese history meets fantasy in Sho Online

by Mike Schramm Mar 24th 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Historical, Video, New titles, PvP, Free-to-play

Just in case you have been waiting with bated breath to play Sho Online, an MMO based on an old Chinese mix of history and fantasy, your chance is almost here -- after inviting 1000 beta testers into the game last week, they have reached their final closed beta test event, and open beta seems to be just around the corner.

As you can see from the video above, it doesn't look much different from your average Korean MMO, but the Chinese lore and history might add a little bit to the mix that we haven't seen before. There's supposed to be lots of faction warfare involved as well -- the two factions are called Yin and Zhou. Plus, it'll likely be free-to-play, with microtransactions included, which means as a download-and-play distraction, it might be worth a look. Interested?

Tags: chinese-history, fantasy, lizard-interactive, sho-online, yin, zhou