Massively^™

At GDC, we considered the possibility that Asia is the "Hollywood of MMOs." The Chinese online gaming market is getting bigger and bigger. Case in point: a new report says the market is now valued at around $1.8 billion. That's up 66% since last year -- curiously exactly the same number of points leading publisher Shandra's profits went up in a similar period.

And it's just getting started. The report (from a group called i Research) also predicts that the value will be more than $5 billion by 2011. These numbers are a bit more optimistic than the China View numbers we reported on a few weeks ago, but the consensus seems to be, in layman's terms: online gaming in China equals big bucks.

Recently the Chinese government launched a campaign of sorts to temper the popularity of online games because addiction has become a big problem. Will that slow the growth of the industry? Probably not.

[Via PlayNoEvil]

As if today's earlier report out of China wasn't enough, here's more wackiness from the wonderful world of Chinese gaming... PlayNoEvil is reporting on a story that first appeared on Pacific Epoch's website about the Chinese gaming company Shanda Interactive. All this gaming goofiness started back in November 2006, when a player (named Zhang) in the game World of Legend first noticed six of his virtual items missing. He complained to Shanda who replied that the items were taken because of a police investigation regarding the sale of stolen virtual items. Well, Shanda failed to return the items once the investigation was over. Bad Move. The player sued the company and was awarded an apology and 5,000 Yuan ($680 US). Zhang originally sued Shanda in the Hunan Qiyang People's Court. Judge Milian wasn't presiding.

But it doesn't stop there. Zhang plans to take Shanda back to court for a whopping 150,000 Yuan (that's a smidgen over $20,000 US) which he claims to have spent on the game over the last five years. That's a lot of Yuan.

It will be very interesting to see what - if any - global legal ramifications come out of this. The fact that virtual things have been given a real world value by a court - even if it is Chinese court - may or may not be a good thing. We'll find out soon I'm sure since we all know the good ole U.S of A. is one seriously sue happy country. I bet there's more than a few people out there just dreaming up ways to sue Blizzard or NCsoft for something.

Shandra Interactive Entertainment, the Chinese operator of MapleStory, Dungeons & Dragons Online, The Legend of Mir, and the positively ginormous Ragnarok Online let the world know that its profits for Q3 2007 are up 66% vs. last year and that it is expecting further growth in coming months.

Shandra is the biggest publisher of online games in the Chinese market, and recently reached an agreement with NCsoft by which NCsoft will distribute its new title AION in China through Shandra instead of its old partner in the region, Sina (in which Shandra ironically holds a 20% stake).

To North American and European MMO players, China is more than just a different country; it's a different universe. But it's important to keep an at least one eye on the Chinese market. Gamasutra ran its latest "China Angle" column today. Here's what we learned this time.

The9, the Chinese publisher of World of Warcraft, will be responsible for the Chinese version of EA's FIFA Online 2. The9 already operates the original FIFA Online in the PRC, and EA owns a 15% share in the company, so that's no surprise.

Newer company Giant Interactive -- who are behind the highly profitable Zhengtu Online -- saw a $38.7 million profit in Q3 2007, and all 800 employees of the company were given actual, real-life gold coins in celebration. The company is also actually awarding stocks to some of its customers.

Finally, Korean MMO supercompany NCsoft has selected a new partner company called Shandra to distribute their new title AION. NCsoft opted not to work with their old partner Sina this time. The decision to change may have been influenced by disappointing Chinese numbers for Lineage and Lineage II, two NCsoft titles which were brought to the Chinese market by Sina.