Today Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU) and online game developer Changyou (NASDAQ:CYOU) flipped the switch on a brand-new, 3D multiplayer online game called The Deer and the Cauldron. Sohu’s president, Mr Chen De-wen, boasts that it’s the world’s first 3D online game with a Hollywood-standard 3D animation engine.
Launched into beta at 11am this morning for access to some of China’s keenest gamers, the online game – based on a 1960s book that recounts ancient Zhou dynasty myths – took four years to develop, at a reported cost of US$80 million. The game features 183 characters and a huge world environment that was painstakingly replicated from the novel.
As an multiplayer online role-playing game – or MMORPG for short – it allows for the usual free-roaming, trading, character-building, and fighting activities.
The online game is a joint project between South Korean game R&D and Chinese animators, voiced by a selection of famous Chinese actors and actresses, such as Hu Ge, who’s familiar to TV viewers from numerous costume dramas in which he looks startlingly like a computer game character anyway. There’s also a mix of eastern and western musicians thrown into the production as well.
Chinese director Li Guo-li, who directed lots of footage for The Deer and the Cauldron.
Seasoned Chinese director Li Guo-li (pictured right) was drafted in to direct the 360 hours of high-definition 3D scenes that intersperse the gameplay in The Deer and the Cauldron. Like the actor Hu Ge, Mr Li is well-known for his kung fu-infused period TV dramas and movies, which tie-in nicely with the flavour of this game.
You can download the game at Changyou’s new mini-site, or just check out this video promo of The Deer and the Cauldron:
[Source: Techweb – article in Chinese]
Stay updated on the go with our mobile app.
Get latest insights with smoother, more personalized experience through TIA mobile app.
