VideoGames: China: Pirates bedevil legit game market, industry

WSJ China Realtime Report (Aud5,2k11)

Co-Opting China’s Online Game Pirates

Shanda Games

A screenshot shows the home page for “Juezhan Shuangcheng,” a multiplayer online game that mimics some of the characteristics of so-called “private server games” being developed by a partner of China’s Shanda Games.

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The underworld that is China’s pirated online-game sector is a big drag on the country’s legitimate game market, affecting top titles like World of Warcraft and many others in the popular swords-and-sorcery genre.

So how do you beat the pirates? Companies are generally aggressive about shutting down unlicensed versions of their games. But for China’s Shanda Games, the answer also includes efforts to win back users who have turned to unlicensed games – sometimes with help from former pirates themselves.

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