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CDC Games USA to Start Open Beta Test of Battle of Shadows on September 30
CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation and pioneer of the “free-to-play, pay for merchandise” model for online games in China, announced today that its CDC Games USA unit will launch the open beta program on September 30 for Battle of Shadows, its first free-to-play online game to be distributed in the U.S. CDC Games USA is a unit of CDC Games’ newly formed subsidiary, CDC Games International (CGI).
Battle of Shadows is the latest in several new games backed internationally by CGI. Already, CGI has sub-licensing agreements for publishing five new games with leading online games providers throughout Southeast Asia and Taiwan. In addition, CGI also has plans to publish games directly in Japan.
“We are very excited to launch our first online game in the U.S.,” said Peter Yip, CEO of CDC Games. “With our recent agreements to offer five new games for southeast Asia and Taiwan, along with the launch of Battle of Shadows in the U.S. and future plans to publish games in Japan, CDC Games is positioning itself as one of the leading global online games companies with a broad and diversified international games portfolio.”
Developed by Korea-based N-Log Inc., Battle of Shadows, known as “Darkness and Light” in the Asian online game markets, is a real-time strategy (RTS) and role playing game (RPG). In the team-based action game, a player can choose a character and fight enemies with weapons and magic skills. The goal of the game is to conquer the base camps of the opponents. The concept of Battle of Shadows is based on the final war between the power of darkness and light. The game features a Gothic setting with vampires, werewolves and other fantasy creatures. Some key technical features of the game include one-round matches from the RTS genre and character growth elements from the RPG genre; as well as enabling players to use the mouse only when playing so they are not forced to learn complicated keyboard-skills that are typical of RTS or massively multiplayer online (MMO) games.
“We believe Battle of Shadows will be a well-received game in the U.S. market because it combines the appeal of an easy-to-use and quick to play online game with the depth and intensity of RPG and the fun of MMO games,” said Ron Williams, general manager of CDC Games USA. “In addition to Battle of Shadows, we have plans for several exciting new games for the U.S. and we expect the free-to-play model to grow rapidly in the coming years and exhibit the same potential for success that we have seen in China.”
CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA)
For more information: http://www.cdccorporation.net/