Status of new game development by Sohu

The last article on Sohu’s game can be found here:
http://chinese-net-gaming-stock.blogspot.com/2008/09/status-on-sohus-next-two-games.html

JianXian (Legend of Ancient War) is a third party game. It is developed by another company but was licensed to Sohu. It is getting closed to the market. It will have the final closed beta on 2/17/2009.
http://sde.game.sohu.com/web_affiche/intoAffiche.jsp?key=d37d9a5d6d475be213be7c5f91da0be3&id=4641&game=4&aff_type=1

During this stage of beta, the players’ account will not be removed after this stage of close beta. It means the game is almost ready. This stage of closed beta shall not be long. For a free to play game, open beta means the start of monetization. Therefore, I predict monetization of this game will be only 2 or 3 months away.

LDJ (The Duke of Mount Deer)
It is still in closed beta. On 12/28/2008, it went into second stages of closed beta. I also found an in-game video. It can be found here:
http://ldj.17173.com/videofile/2008-07-29/20080729160451998.shtml

From the above video, it is clear the game is a very cute, cartoon styled game similar to NTES’s XYQ.

If SOHU is going to have another blockbuster, this may be the one.

SOHU will unveil another game on 2/12/2009. It already has a web site:
http://game.sohu.com/cover.html
and has a blog:
http://sohuxinyou.blog.sohu.com/

More information about this game can be found here:
http://news.17173.com/content/2009-02-06/20090206102327606,1.shtml

During the third quarter 2008 earning conference, SOHU call this new game “Immortal Faith”. There are really no new information on this game until February 12, 2009. It will be interesting to hear more about this game.

Status on Sohu’s next two games

My last post on the status of Sohu's games can be found here:
http://chinese-net-gaming-stock.blogspot.com/2008/06/quick-sohu-games-status-update.html

Sohu's next major game, LDJ, will enter first closed beta on 9/17/2008. See the following news:
http://news.17173.com/content/2008-09-05/20080905162840285,1.shtml

Sohu had also opened the official game site:
http://ldj.sohu.com/

I don't think Sohu will get LDJ out this year. I am guessing that we shall see the game becoming commercial in either 1Q or 2Q 2009.

In addition, there is news that Sohu will license and operate another title, JianXian. Please see the following news:
http://news.17173.com/content/2008-09-08/20080908101530846,1.shtml

Sohu will start internal beta for this game at the end of September 2008. This game shall be in commercial operation in 2009.

In the 2Q2008 earning conference call, Sohu called LDJ as "The Duke of Mount Deer" and JianXian as "Legned of Ancient War".

Quick Sohu games status update

My previous post on Sohu’s TLBB game can be found here:

http://chinese-net-gaming-stock.blogspot.com/2008/03/tlbb-status-update.html

This is just a quick update on Sohu games.

TLBB Quick Check

Over the weekend, I was wondering the effect of Olympics relay troubles and earthquakes had on the games in general and TLBB in particular. So I went back to my server monitoring to see if there are anything going on.

The trouble with the Olympics relay started in Europe around 4/6/2008. The earthquake occurs on 5/12/2008 in Sichuan. The 3 days mourning period is on 5/19/2008 to 5/21/2008.

From a quick check, by just adding the server counts of 3 Saturdays in April, and comparing that with 3 Saturdays in January, April’s count suffers a -4% decrease in ACU than that of January. It could be due to seasonal factor or it could be due to the trouble with Olympics relay were drawing many players to TVs.

Similarly, I did a quick check on May vs. February. By adding 3 Saturdays in May and comparing that of February give me a +7.7% increase from February to May. Its server statistics had been very strong after the 3 days mourning period. As matter of fact, TLBB most likely had another PCU record on 5/24/2008. I would estimate its new PCU would be around 650k to 670k and it occurs on 5/24/2008, the weekend right after the 3 days mourning period!

I am a little surprised at the strong momentum of China’s game market. Both major events (Olympics relay troubles and earthquakes) may have some slowing effect at the beginning. But the growth afterward had been accelerating. It is clear that China’s gaming market is still growing.

BO quick Check

Sohu’s Blade Online is still on-going. It is a very small game but it had been growing a little quarter by quarter. My server count had shown this pattern. In addition, it is going to have an expansion pact on 6/19/2008. It had been awhile since Blade online had an expansion pact.

Blade online is a small game. Nothing will make it a major title. But it is clear that it will continuing this growth trajectory for the next few quarters.

LDJ Quick Check

LDJ is going to be Sohu’s next major title. But there were zero information about it so far. That changed a couple of days ago. The official blog for the game had opened. Sohu provided a little information on this game. The blog can be found here:

http://ldj.blog.sohu.com/

There is still too little information for me to draw any conclusion yet. But it is going to be a 2D cartoon Q-style game. There are going to have a lot of cute and funny characters in this game. In the blog, the game developers put the game operation time at the second half of this year. But I think it is a little too optimistic. I will estimate that this game will start operation either by the end of this year or beginning of next year.