 The
emerging mobile game industry has developed at an unprecedented speed.
According to a report by Frost & Sullivan Company, the global
mobile game industry earned revenue of USD436.4 million last year
and is expected to increase annual revenue to USD 9.34 billion by
2008. Other market research shows that the global wireless game market
will earn USD17.5 billion in 2006. China's mobile game industry was
initially launched when China Mobile started to charge users for the
right to access Treasure Box in Sept. 2003. Since then, the numbers
of subscribers have increased dramatically. Within just a few months,
China Mobile game subscribers increased to over 2 million people.
Greater growth of the mobile game has been regarded as a "gold
mine" of the game industry after the popularity of network game.
In what is a highly competitive market, MMMRPG (Multiplayer Mail-based
Role-Playing Game) has become one of the most popular services due
to its superior advantages of interaction, communication and the
fact that it is pirate proof. Mtone Wireless has developed and operated
the first commercial MMMRPG in the world---"The legend of The
Three Realms ", a game which is focused on the Chinese market
and is set in the Tang Dynasty. It allows game players to develop
their character from a lowly common person into a powerful and influential
leader of society. This character meanwhile learns all kinds of
techniques in order to finish different tasks. He can directly interact
with other players by chatting and competing with them and finally,
they participate in their own factions respectively. In this game,
there are large social systems, including an economic system, a
fair trade system, and a system for building alliances and friendships
so that game players can experience a virtual society.
"The legend of The Three Realms" can be
used in over 30 mobile phone models. Thus, of the 300 million mobile
phones in use in China, over 50 million mobile phones can support
this game. This number is increasing as well. Since "The legend
of The Three Realms" started online operations in Oct. 2004,
over 40,000 subscribers have registered. Active subscribers who
log on at least once a day account for 20%, while the average GPRS
traffic for each user is 2000 k each month.
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