French game publisher Ubi Soft Entertainment yesterday announced plans to bring Sony's giant EverQuest multiplayer game to China.
EverQuest is the biggest of the MMO (massively multiplayer online) gaming genre, in which tens of thousands of players take part in online virtual worlds. Among its competitors are Origin's Ultima Online and Asheron's Call from Microsoft.
In order to reach mainland gamers, the game must first be localised, requiring the translation of more than 1.5 million words into Chinese.
The translation and local hosting for the game will be handled by Ubi Soft, which employs about 230 staff in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
The localisation will also help Sony get around Beijing's concerns that MMO games create environments beyond its regulatory reach.
United States software publisher Wolfpack Studios enlisted Hong Kong's En-Tranz to bring its popular Shadowbane MMO title to the mainland, hosting the game on servers based in Beijing.
The two firms hope that Chinese gamers, known for their enthusiasm for fantasy role-playing games, will be keen to join the online community when the local version is launched early next year.