Company of Heroes MMO spied
In China only...
A persistent world version of Company of Heroes is being planned, we learn, the award-winning RTS title set to become an MMO... in China.
Publisher THQ will make Relic's seminal strategy game an MMO release exclusively in China, in a bid combat rampant piracy, especially on the PC platform.
With the new release, Chinese players will be able to level-up and climb rank during PvP and multiplayer co-op fun. Other modes are mooted and some form of clan system is likely.
"There is no PC retail market here due to rampant piracy - everything you buy is a pirated version. So you have to make your game online-only and modify the design to be culturally viable in the market", explained Tim Holman, Company of Heroes Online producer.
"The whole industry wants to court the country (official population: 1.3 billion, with some estimates putting it as high as 1.7 billion), it's just that [we] don't know how. Publishers will localize a game, toss it over the fence, and then scratch their heads as to why it's not selling," he concludes.
Source: 1UP.com
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