Guild Wars 2 has sold more than 500,000 copies in China, but it could be in trouble

The Chinese launch of Guild Wars 2 is something we’ve been following pretty closely because of the game’s monetization scheme: a pay-up-front model that isn’t traditionally popular with Chinese MMORPG players. But the game, which officially launched in open beta on Thursday, seems to be doing pretty well. Official sources say the game sold 500,000 preorders in April alone.

(See: China gets an official Guild Wars 2 music video)

A Netease Games editor did some counting on Taobao and its offshoot Tmall and found the game has also sold nearly 250,000 copies through those platforms since preorders began. It’s not entirely clear whether or not the official 500,000 number includes the Taobao and Tmall sales that occurred before May 1.

But whatever the exact sales number to date is, things certainly look bright for GW2‘s China distributor Kongzhong. Sure, Guild Wars 2 may not have yet equalled the 3.5 million units it has shipped outside China’s borders, but it took the game a year after its release to get to that number. Given that it just launched in China yesterday, and that the publisher adopted what many would consider a risky and unpopular business model for a Chinese MMO, I’d say things are off to a pretty good start.

There is one dark cloud on the horizon, though. A scandal involving stolen accounts has already scared some Chinese players away from the game, and likely will hurt what were originally expected to be impressive first week sales numbers. That setback should be a temporary one, but Kongzhong will have to work hard to convince players that it has improved account security measures or the issue could stunt the game’s growth potential in China permanently.

(via Netease Games)

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