Digimon MMO in the Making

Earlier in the day we talked about the rise of the Chinese MMO market and about how the value of business conducted in that market was going to reach 3 billion dollars by 2010. Now we're going to talk about how MMOs developed on Eastern principles have a shot at getting a market share on the Western MMO market.

Case in point is the latest announcement from CDC Games, a Chinese developer, that they plan to create a Digimon themed MMO for launch first in South Korea and then in the United States. The Korean launch is set for late this year while the release date for North America is to be announced and is, presumably, dependent on the success the game enjoys in Korea.

Think of Digimon as Tamagotchi on steroids. And with claws. And with a strong desire to destroy other Digimons. At first they were key ring companions for young boys, with the added twist that after you fed and gave them water you could take them out and have them fight other Digimons. As with the Pokemon, a craze quickly developed. First an anime series was created and after five installments videogames followed. The Digimon games cover various platforms like the Nintendo DS, the Game Boy Advance and the PlayStation consoles.

The MMO based on the Digimon theme will feature kids that somehow have been chosen to receive and take care of a Digimon pet. The pets will grow, they will develop certain abilities and then players will get to pit their Digimon against other players in clear PvP battles. At the moment the developers are not saying whether giant defeat tears will make an appearance.

The game will not feature a standard subscription based business model. It will be free to play, but players will have to dish out some cash to get merchandise. Without the merchandise the game is much harder but not impossible. This micro transactions model could make the game a success, especially on the South Korean market.


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