DEC. 1, 2008 • The Dungeon Keeper PC game by Peter Molyneux was licensed from Electronic Arts Asia Pacific by China’s NetDragon Websoft. The latter intends to create an MMO based on the franchise called Dungeon Keeper Online, which will initially be released in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. In other news, EA acquired J2MSoft Inc. in Korea. J2M is known for online games such as RayCity, TAAN, and Debut.
Impact: Dungeon Keeper was a retail PC game released over 10 years ago. The mechanic of the game is very similar to many of the currently popular online games in Asia. This type of product would be considered out-of-date in Western markets, but could be well-suited for markets like China. One advantage of publishers like EA is that they have a library of older content that has the possibility of being re-purposed for emerging markets.
