Bumper crop of online games set for holiday release

For example, Soft-World, which entered China about 11 years ago, is considering issuing a copy of its self-produced game Jin Yung Online II to a Chinese company, Wang said.

Through such cross-strait partnership, Chinese games are also expected to be introduced to Taiwan gamers.

The first Chinese game to enter Taiwan is Swordman Online developed by Kingsoft Co (金山軟件) and distributed by Soft-World. The game currently draws about 20,000 players online at the same time, despite becoming a fee-based game in November last year, Soft-World said.

Softstar also worked with a Pixel Game (像素軟件), a Chinese game developer based in Beijing, to release its Blade Online in Taiwan at the end of last year. The game has been enthusiastically received by local gamers, collecting over 100,000 members so far.

With above-average quality and lower royalties than South Korean games, there will be more Chinese game titles in the local market, Wang said.

In addition to China, Taiwanese companies are also targeting markets in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. But to make Taiwan a significant exporter of PC online games, game companies will need to increase their made-in-Taiwan titles.