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CDC Games Provides Update on Key Performance Metrics for November New Games, Special Force and Shaiya, Continue Strong Growth in China
BEIJING, ATLANTA , Dec. 7, 2007 -- CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation and pioneer of the .free-to-play, pay for merchandise. model for online games in China, today announced key performance metrics for certain of its commercially available games in China. Total registered users across all online games of CDC Games exceeded 123 million as of the end of November. Overall revenues for CDC Games are becoming more diversified with Yulgang revenues accounting for 56 percent of the total and the five newer games: Special Force, Shaiya, MIR III, EVE Online and Shine Online accounting for 44 percent, as of the end of November. Special Force, launched in June 2007 as the first free-to-play, pay for merchandise FPS (first person shooter) game in China, experienced growth in key categories during November. Special Force is also ranked among the Top-10 most popular games in China according to 17173.com. Compared to October 2007, key metrics for November 2007 were:
Shaiya Online, one of the games acquired in the OPTIC acquisition in July, also performed well, with November 2007 average daily revenue growth of 16 percent compared to October 2007. Shaiya Online is an MMORPG set in a fantasy world where two nations, the "Alliance of Light" and the "Union of Fury" fight over the holy ground of "Eden." Revenue performance of the other games acquired in the OPTIC acquisition, MIR III and EVE Online, remained relatively stable from October to November 2007. One of the company.s newer games, Shine Online, a cartoon fantasy, 3D MMORPG launched in late September 2007, began with strong revenue performance but has exhibited a decline in player activity and revenue during November 2007. An upgraded version of the game is due for availability in December, and feedback from players indicates that they are waiting for these updates to resume playing. Yulgang, the company.s first MMORPG in China, continues to be included among China.s Top-10 most popular online games, according to 17173.com, in its third year of commercial availability. Recently hurt by pirated copies of the game operated illegally in China and our reported disputes with Yulgang.s licensor, MGame, Yulgang has experienced average daily revenues in November that are more than 20 percent above its July 2007 levels and that are virtually unchanged from October 2007. This recovery has been aided by the company.s active efforts to shut down pirate servers hosting the game. Working in conjunction with the Chinese government authorities, law enforcement agencies, as well as Internet operators, CDC Games now believes that less than 10 percent of players of the pirated games remain active on those games. The company intends to continue its efforts to eliminate the Pirate servers, including its leadership of the OGAAP (Online Games Alliance Against Piracy) initiative which has received strong endorsements and support from Chinese governmental agencies regulating the online gaming industry, as well as enthusiastic interest and participation of gaming and entertainment companies worldwide. .We are very happy to see Special Force continuing to grow and gain momentum in its fifth full month of commercial availability,. said Xiaowei Chen, Ph.D., president of CDC Games. .As with any new online game, we are starting from a small base of active players, so the overall revenue impact is still relatively small in this early stage. Based on the current popularity of Special Force and its growth rate experienced to date, we expect it will be a significant contributor for CDC Games going forward. We are also happy to see improved and sustained performance of Yulgang during the past three months. We intend to continue negotiating with Mgame executives and work with the legal teams with the hope that we can soon settle our dispute,. Chen added, .We are also very excited about the start of our open beta program for Minna de Battle, our first MMORPG for the Japan market, and the pending launch of Lunia Online in the United States. With these new games, we intend to establish CDC Games as a global game publisher with online games operating in three of the world.s major markets; China, Japan and the U.S.. About CDC Games CDC Games is one of the market leaders of online and mobile games in China with more than 100 million registered users. The company's hit title Yulgang was among the first "free-to-play, pay-for-merchandise" online games in China and has received the "Top 10 Most Popular Games" award from the China Game Industry Annual Conference (CGIAC) for three consecutive years, in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Currently, CDC Games offers six popular MMO online games in China that includes: Yulgang, Shaiya, Special Force, Mir III, Shine and Eve Online. In March 2007, the company announced the formation of CDC Games Studio to establish strategic relationships with selected games development partners to accelerate the development of new, original online games for China and other targeted global geographies. CDC Games anticipates being able to deploy up to $100 million for CDC Games Studio investments through contributions from CDC affiliated companies, external partners and its internal resources. In August 2007, CDC Games formed a new subsidiary called CDC Games International (CGI) and CDC Games USA to launch new games internationally and to position CDC Games as a global publisher of online games. For more information on CDC Games, visit: www.cdcgames.net About OGAAP The Online Games Alliance Against Piracy (OGAAP) is a non-profit organization founded by CDC Games and other leading online games developers, with sponsorship from the China Government, to fight the piracy of online games in China. The goals of OGAAP are to establish a platform for industry participants and stakeholders to exchange ideas and share experiences; conduct market and technology research; propose industry-wide policies and practices; lobby relevant government bodies and lawmakers to enact anti-piracy legislation; actively promote public awareness of copyrighted online game usage, educate online game players about copyrighted content and vigorously pursue the continued shutdown of pirated online games as well as the arrest and conviction of their operators. Founding members of the OGAAP alliance include CDC Games; CCP, the Iceland-based developer of EVE Online; Ons On Soft Co. Ltd., the Korea-based developer of Shine; Sonokong Co. Ltd., the Korea-based developer of Shaiya, and Come on Baby; T3 entertainment, the Korea-based developer of Audition online game; and Wemade Entertainment, the Korea-based developer of Legend of Mir II and MIR III online games. About CDC Corporation The CDC family of companies includes CDC Software focused on enterprise software applications and services, CDC Mobile focused on mobile applications, CDC Games focused on online games, and China.com focused on portals for the greater China markets. For more information about CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA), please visit www.cdccorporation.net. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Investor Relations Monish Bahl Public Relations Scot McLeod  |