The Chinese market for MMOs is immense, but it's also a market that's proven remarkably resistant to foreign intrusion. (We don't need to recount the whole saga of
World of Warcraft over there.) But in addition to launching nearly everywhere else, it looks as if
Final Fantasy XIV will also be
going into the Chinese market in a partnership with
Shanda Games Limited. This comes after
Square-Enix CEO
Yoichi Wada had mentioned a year ago that the company wished to pursue business partnerships with companies inside mainland China.
Shanda Games Limited will most likely be operating the servers for the game, which will remain separate from the "normal" servers -- the only region-locked servers that the game is currently set to have, as a point of fact. There's no word on when the game will launch, either, simply that it is
in the pipeline for release thanks to the new partnership. The rest of the world, of course, will get to start enjoying
Final Fantasy XIV on the 30th (or the 22nd with the collector's edition).
[Thanks to FusionX for the tip!]
