Square Enix and Shanda Games announced today a partnership to bring Square Enix's considerable game library to mainland China. The partnership will kick off with Final Fantasy XIV, with Shanda having the exclusive license to operate the upcoming MMO in mainland China.
"The media entertainment markets are increasingly becoming more and more global in nature. Under this environment, we are speeding up our globalization strategy aimed at transforming our Group into a truly world-class enterprise," said Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix. "Through this partnership with Shanda Games, a company with great success in online game operations in China, we are taking an important step in increasing the reach of high quality content from the Square Enix Group to even more customers around the world."
"We are excited to have Square Enix as a partner to leverage our capabilities and synergies for the benefit of both companies. Our in-house game development team is well-qualified to assist in the localization of Final Fantasy XIV to the China market, while our strong sales and marketing capabilities and extensive game operation platform can provide access to the broad audience of Chinese gamers,” said Alan Tan, CEO of Shanda Games. “Since its debut in 1987, the Final Fantasy franchise has attracted many devoted fans worldwide and, based on our experience and expertise in the China market, we are confident in the success of Final Fantasy XIV as well other future collaborations with Square Enix. We believe our strategic partnership with Square Enix represents an alliance between leading game companies in Japan and China, and we look forward to broadening our business through this partnership."
Shanda's Chinese Final Fantasy XIV server will stand alone from the Square Enix servers in Japan, North America and Europe. Launch information will be released at a later date.
