Kai Fu Lee
Sina Tech is reporting that Kai-fu Lee’s incubator Innovation Works’s latest investment is apparently a games studio, Zhuhai Xin Games, that’s working on a 2D massively-multiplayer online kung fu game. The exact sum of the investment has not yet been disclosed. The game, which should begin a closed beta this April, has obviously been on Innovation Works’s radar for a while, as it also gave Zhuhai Xin an angel investment last April.
A multiplayer kung-fu game in 2D is not exactly an innovation; in fact, that’s one of the most crowded markets in China’s crowded online games marketplace. What will set this new game apart? According to Zhuhai Xin’s Zhan Zhenyang, it’s a “revolutionary” new business model that resolves the game imbalances caused by the introduction of the “freemium” model and places a heavier emphasis on creating and maintaining a stable community of players for the game.
In practice, though, the model looks very similar to Long Journey 2, Giant Interactive’s highly successful 2D kung-fu MMO. There are some differences — specifically, Zhan cites the way players can trade items — but we’ll have to wait until at least April to see if this is really an innovation or a case of someone wanting to take a big bite out of that delicious pie Giant Interactive is eating.
[via Sina Tech]
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