Editorial Summary

Fuzhou-based online game company NetDragon (8288.HK) lost about 5% of its gamers to the Sichuan earthquake, reports shihua.com.cn quoting NetDragon vice president and CFO Hu Zeming. Hu said Sichuan gamers accounted for about 7% of NetDragon gamers while South China players, mainly those in Guangdong and Fujian, account for over 50% of the total. NetDragon has approximately 600 development employees and hopes to reach between 800 and 1,000 employees by late 2008. The company spends between HK$15 million and HK$20 million on the development of each game and hopes to release three to five games per year. Hu said NetDragon releases foreign language versions, mainly English versions, of its games three to six months after their Chinese release.

NetDragon is negotiating with three or four domestic game developers regarding acquisition agreements, and hopes to acquire small- and medium-sized companies, said Hu. The chief financial officer said the details of its Disney partnership will be disclosed in September. Company president Liu Dejian said in March that NetDragon had signed with Disney's Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) for content development and distribution, and would release a new game based on Disney characters in 2009.