New PCU record at XY2

My last post on XY2 can be found here:

http://chinese-net-gaming-stock.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-update-on-xy2.html

My last post on XYQ can be found here:

http://chinese-net-gaming-stock.blogspot.com/2008/04/ntes-xyq-and-tx2-update.html

There are a lot of activities happening in NTES right now. It is going to take me a few articles to go through them.

NTES’s XY2 is a game that really surprised me. It is a 6 years old game. Even NTES thinks it is a dying game. But it is becoming clear that it now have a second chance. As a matter of fact, it is not just growing, it is accelerating.

On 6/1/12008, NTES got a PCU record for XY2. Its new record is PCU=544018. See the following link:
http://xy2.163.com/news/2008/6/1/1082_189300.html

It is amazing how fast is XY2 growing.

According to the 1Q earning conference, the PCU for 4Q 2007 is 387k, and for 1Q 2008 is 385k.

So far in the 2Q 2008, the new PCU is 544k.

XY2 is not just growing, it is accelerating. What is even more interesting is that it occurs just a few weeks after the great earthquake.

Furthermore, the ninth expansion pact for XY2 shall be out in a month or so. Unlike most other Chinese games, NTES doesn’t develop expansion pact often. XY2 has a new expansion pact about every 9 months (or 9^th in 6 years).

It is amazing that XY2 is able to grow so fast without coming out with an expansion pact yet.

It is almost like that most XY2 players had given up on XY2 by the middle of last year. But when NTES comes out with XY3, most XY2 players had a change of heart and said “not so fast, I changed my mind. I want to play the old XY2 again”.

If anything, this shows that in China, players values community much more than they value fancy computer graphics, beautiful eye candies, and advanced game playing features.

Also, on the same date, 6/1/2008, according to my server monitoring, XYQ is having a near record breaking day for PCU as well.

The strength of both XY2 and XYQ (a 6 years old and 4 years old title) really surprises me.