Posts tagged business 
ChangYou reports record profits for the year
If you live in China and play online, you know the name ChangYou. The company is a bit less well-known over in the US, but it's still made a name for itself with quirky titles like Zentia and Duke of Mount Deer. It's also apparently making a massive amount of money. According to the company's ...
Namco executive: F2P titles 'can't be high quality'
Just when we thought every game development firm on the planet had jumped on the free-to-play bandwagon, along comes Namco-Bandai and executive Olivier Comte. The senior vice president recently spoke at the Cloud Gaming Europe conference, and he had some pretty harsh words for the industry's ...
Raph Koster talks about free-to-play models and whales
The idea of free-to-play business models can prompt a lot of venom from players who are certain that the model, essentially, is a trick. You'll be forced into paying for the game somehow, or you'll be able to pay extra money and walk away with all of the best stuff in the game. Raph Koster has a ...
Funcom tops Oslo stock exchange, invests heavily in The Secret World
Funcom's future is looking pretty bright according to a report at Views and News from Norway. The site says the development firm behind Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World topped the Oslo stock exchange last year and saw its share price rise by 227%. AoC has "sold well and still ...
Darkfall devblog addresses Darkfall 2.0 progress, lack of communication
Darkfall fans, rejoice! More news about Darkfall 2.0 is upon us. Tasos Flambouras stopped by the game's blog today to mention that the team does "notice the anxiety on the forums concerning development progress, timing of Darkfall's re-launch, speculation about a wipe between Darkfall and the ...
Shanda Games going back to private ownership
If you've been following development on Eligium, you're probably at least passingly familiar with the name Shanda Games. You'd be more familiar with it in China, since the company also operates a variety of games from other markets, including Aion, MapleStory, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. ...
SEGA acquires Spiral Knights creator Three Rings Design
SEGA announced today that it has acquired indie developer Three Rings Design. Three Rings is no newcomer to the MMO industry, with popular titles such as Puzzle Pirates and the new Spiral Knights. SEGA's Senior VP of Digital Business, Haruki Satomi, says of the acquisition, "We are proud to ...
Nexon looking to purchase Freestyle developer
Do you like street basketball? It certainly seems like the folks at Nexon do, seeing as how the company is in talks to purchase the developer of Freestyle. The rather unique street basketball MMO is developed by South Korean company JCE, and Nexon is currently in meetings with the company's ...
John Smedley talks free-to-play across the industry
If you've somehow missed the news from earlier today, John Smedley had a chat with us about the impending switch to a free-to-play model for DC Universe Online. So it might not come as a big surprise that he's penned a recent editorial on GamesIndustry.biz regarding the current state of MMO ...
Lord of the Rings Online still not available in China
When it comes to mammoth western themepark MMOs and the Chinese gaming market, apparently there can be only one. And that one isn't named Lord of the Rings Online (or Highlander Online, sadly). CDC Corporation initially entered into an agreement to distribute Turbine's Tolkien-inspired MMORPG ...
