[photopress:sega_01.jpg,full,alignright]Sega, the Japan-based game firm, has shut down its unsuccessful online game division in China. The Sega online game sector, based in Shanghai, has been officially disbanded.
The company said through its public relations agency that ‘Sega is not familiar with the Chinese online game market and it has decided to shrink the business.’
Sega’s other mainland businesses, such as game consoles and a game park in a shopping mall in Nanjing Road in Shanghai apparently will not be affected.
Sega’s three online games did not take off with local users and, according to anonymous sources, the average peak concurrent user base was less than 1,000. That is not serious market share.
China total online market revenue was RMB7.13 billion ($929 million) in 2006, 27% growth year on year. Plainly Sega did not get much of it. The dominating companies were homegrown — Shanda, NetEase and The9.
Hou Tao, an analyst at iResearch said, ‘The market is complicated and fiercely competitive. Foreign firms are strong in game design but the domestic firms have more experience in operations.’
Source: Shanghai Daily