Shanda to take Final Fantasy XIV to China
Strikes deal with Square Enix for first Chinese release of RPG franchise
Shanda Games and Square Enix have struck a deal to release Final Fantasy XIV in China, the first time a title in the acclaimed series has officially been released in the region.
Shanda will operate servers in China and localise the MMO. The company operates Mir II and World of Legend in the region, alongside NCsoft's Korean MMO Aion.
"The media entertainment markets are increasingly becoming more and more global in nature. Under this environment, we are speeding up our globalisation strategy aimed at transforming our group into a truly world-class enterprise," commented Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix.
"Through this partnership with Shanda Games, a company with great success in online game operations in China, we are taking an important step in increasing the reach of high quality content from the Square Enix Group to even more customers around the world."
Alan Tan, CEO of Shanda added: "Our in-house game development team is well-qualified to assist in the localization of Final Fantasy XIV to the China market, while our strong sales and marketing capabilities and extensive game operation platform can provide access to the broad audience of Chinese gamers."