The online game industry’s revenues and profits this year may be impacted by the popularity of handset-based games, Chinese Gamer International Corp (中華網龍), one of the nation’s leading online game publishers, said yesterday.
“These low-priced or free-of-charge handset-based games for smartphones and tablets have impacted the industry, especially the 2D online games market,” company president Leu Shyue-sen (呂學森) told a media briefing.
Against this backdrop, Chinese Gamer is planning to launch its first major cross-platform online game — compatible with PCs, tablets and smartphones — in the fourth quarter or the first quarter next year to help expand its revenues and profits, Leu said.
“After launching six small-scale games, we are ready to expand our business in the handset-game market,” he said.
Chinese Gamer’s six newly launched small-scale games are bundled with one of Acer Inc’s (宏碁) Android-based tablets.
Leu said yesterday the company is also planning to launch new products that will be bundled with Asustek Computer Inc’s (華碩) mobile devices, but did not elaborate.
He said the company would focus more on developing major cross-platform games in the future, as these games may contribute more revenues and profits to the company, adding that he was confident that customers would be willing to pay for higher quality games.
During the first six months of the year, revenue totaled NT$867.29 million (US$30.03 million), down 12.26 percent from a year earlier, the company’s data showed.
Chinese Gamer’s net profit was NT$158.45 million, or NT$1.82 per share, in the first quarter, compared with NT$274.7 million, or NT$3.19 per share, in the same period last year, the data showed.
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