PopCap Games, the makes of the wildly popular Plants vs Zombies, announced today an exclusive partnership with social networking site Renren to bring its game to China. The game will not just be a port of the title, but rather it will be “the first ever social adaptation” of Plants vs Zombies.
We contacted a representative with PopCap China this evening who told us that the game is not just localized, but it’s “adapted to Chinese user behavior.” This version of the game was developed by PopCap’s Shanghai studio, and there will be new zombies, power-ups, and challenges each week to keep gamers on their toes.
James Gwertzman, the head of PopCap in the Asia/Pacific region sent out the news earlier today on Twitter (see above). He was in attendance at the recent Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing, sitting on the Western Innovations Panel. At that time he commented on why many western companies have difficulty operating in the Chinese market:
As long as distribution is locked up and prohibited from foreign ownership, you’re going to have difficulties here… You have to find a domestic partner. I don’t have a grudge that we have to share the revenue, but you’re just one step away from the market.
It looks like PopCap was indeed willing to take on a domestic partner in the end, and quite a big one at that. Renren recently IPO’d making them the first social networking firm to be listed on the NYSE.
Lead photo: donews
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