Shaking off lackluster summer performances, local online PC game providers are now warming up for the next major battlefield -- Christmas and winter break.
The first to join the battle is Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技), the nation's largest online game provider, which announced yesterday that its subsidiary, Game Flier International Corp (遊戲新幹線), has obtained a proxy to distribute RF Online (Racing Force Online), a popular game title developed by Seoul-based CCR Corp.
"We hope the new game will stimulate the gloomy gaming market, which has persisted since this summer," Wang Chin-po (
RF Online, a science fiction game that allows many gamers to play at once -- also called a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) -- debuted in the South Korean market in August, and has since attracted a record 1 million gamers to register on the site, with 90,000 players online in real time.
Soft-World is scheduled to test RF Online at the end of the year, before officially unveiling the game in February in both Taiwan and Hong Kong. The launch is timed for the beginning of the school winter break.
As RF Online has been well received among South Korean gamers, Wang anticipates the game will become a successor to Soft-World's signature product Ragnarok Online (RO,
The sluggish summer has weighed on the nation's gaming industry. Soft-World reported sales of NT$247 million in July, a 18.55 percent drop from the same period last year. Smaller rival Wayi International Digital Entertainment Co (
Jo Lin (
To avoid a repeat effect in the next hot season -- Christmas and winter break, Wayi plans to test and introduce a series of its own games, including UE Online (Ultimate Eden Online, 羽音) and San Guo Online (鐵血三國志), instead of importing products from South Korea as most companies do, Lin said.
"South Korean games are not so powerful in the local market," Lin said, "So we want to develop our own games to cater to gamers in the greater Chinese market."
Another major game provider, Softstar Entertainment Inc (大宇資訊), has also jumped on the bandwagon of game development. The company says it has been actively storing up ammunition, designing games such as Dream of Mirror Online (飛天歷險) and Blade Online (刀劍). These are to be introduced to local gamers in the winter.
NEW MARKET: The partnership opens up India to the Dutch company, which already has a strong hold in the semiconductor market of South Korea, Taiwan and China ASML Holding NV entered into a partnership agreement with Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd aimed at ramping up India’s goal to develop domestic chip-manufacturing capabilities. The Dutch company’s technology would help power Tata Electronics’ planned 300 millimeter (mm) semiconductor foundry in Gujarat, according to a joint statement from the two companies on Saturday. The signing of a memorandum of understanding coincides with a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Netherlands, which is looking to deepen bilateral relations with New Delhi. ASML, whose top customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co, makes lithography machines that can print
ROUGH RECORDS: Bonds in Japan, as well is in New Zealand, Australia and the US, are seeing the effects of a nervy market as stock exchanges across Asia edge down A deepening slump in Japanese government bonds added fuel to the selloff in global debt markets as rising oil prices stoked inflation fears and pushed yields to multi-decade highs. Japan’s 30-year yield yesterday surged as much as 20 basis points to the highest level since the tenor’s debut in 1999, before paring some of the move. Shorter-maturity Japanese debt was also under pressure, underscored by weak demand at a sale of five-year notes that offered a record-high coupon of 2 percent. Concerns over inflation and government spending rippling through markets including the US, Australia and New Zealand are being amplified in Japan,
The US has cleared about 10 Chinese firms to buy Nvidia Corp’s second-most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the H200, but not a single delivery has been made so far, three people familiar with the matter said, leaving a major technology deal in limbo as chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) seeks a breakthrough in China this week. Huang, who was not initially listed in a White House delegation to Beijing, joined the trip after an invitation from US President Donald Trump, a source said. Trump picked him up in Alaska en route to a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping
Wall Street is licking its chops over an unprecedented slate of massive initial public offerings (IPOs) set to arrive in the coming months, beginning with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) next month. That is expected to be followed by artificial intelligence (AI) rivals OpenAI and Anthropic PBC. The trio of mega listings, each eyeing valuations around US$1 trillion or more, constitutes a heady period of elevated risk and reward. SpaceX is targeting an IPO that would raise up to US$80 billion — about double the funds generated from all IPOs last year. OpenAI and Anthropic are eyeing IPOs raising US$60 billion. “We’re
RSS