In-Depth Cooperation between Forgame and Qidian on 5 Popular Online Literature Works

Publish Date:2014-08-15 source:Forgame

(Guangzhou, August 2014) - Forgame Holdings Limited (“the Group” or “Forgame”), a Chinese leading developer and publisher of webgames and mobile games, announced recently to have in-depth cooperation with Qidian Literature, a Chinese outstanding online literature and entertainment platform. Forgame was authorized to develop games adapting five popular online novels of Qidian Literature, including ”Nights of General”(将夜)”,The Bricks (唐砖),Soul Calling (无敌唤灵),Top of Martial Arts (武炼巅峰) and ”The Emperor” (帝尊). The mobile games adapting the five popular IPs (Intellectual Property) are planned to be launched in the second half of 2014. Meanwhile, Forgame is open to co-develop online games using more authorized or self-owned IPs, aiming to provide with diversified and  good quality games to the market. With the theme of “Broader Market, Mutual Benefits”, Forgame has implemented specific strategies to adapt  to the change in online game industry since 2013.

The  five online novels authorized to Forgame are hit titles on Qidian.”Nights of General”(将夜) written by Maoni is the most popular one. It was ranked No.1 in the annual voting, No.1  in the star ratings, and awarded champion in  the monthly voting for ten consecutive months in 2013. It gained hundreds of million of clicks accumulatively, and the book of the same name has a cumulative sales of more than one million which is continued to be published in episodes currently. In the first half of 2014, a farewell ceremony was held by fans for the completion of its online version publishing which makes it become rare masterpiece in the field of online literature. The online version of internet novel ”The Bricks” (唐砖) has just finished and has always taken the lead among those fantasy fictions. It is considered as one of the most fantastic work in recent years with excellent emotional expression and literal description. The novel has accumulated tens of million of clicks by readers with its copyright for movie, TV series and books sold. ”Soul Calling” (无敌唤灵), ”Top of Martial Arts” (武炼巅峰) and ”The Emperor”(帝尊)are also well-known by readers in their own categories and have been ranked top 30 of Baidu Tieba, with more than ten million readers on Qidian Literature platform. The cooperation between Forgame and Qidian for game development indicates that adherents of the five works will soon have chance to experience the fantanstic, romantic and heroic oriental swordman world created by Maoni, Cangtianbaihe, Momo and other online writers.


Since 2013, the chase after famous IPs has become keener in Chinese gaming industry. In the 2014 Chinajoy fair, “The bid of IP” has become the hottest word attracting wide attention in the gaming industry. In the IP auction of online literature held by Shanda Literature, the auction price of the authorization of six fictions IPs reached RMB28 million in total, with the highest price at RMB8.1 million, the lowest at RMB1.6 million and the average price at RMB4.67 million. A company even spent RMB60 million to compete for a popular IP that had entered into an authorization agreement  before the event. Many enterprises were willing to pay millions of deposit for the authorization of the IPs according to  the reputation of the authors and the name of their works. This phenomenon indicates the importance of famous IPs in the fierce competition of gaming industry. The authorization of the five popular IPs is consistent with Forgame’s long term strategy and further enhances the Group’s strength in game development. Discussion on the cooperation between Forgame and Qidian had started in 2013 and has preliminarily reached an agreement in March 2014.

Forgame believes the core of game is fun. It is crucial to adapt the popular IPs and express the author’s imagination in the game in an effective way. The purpose of IP authorization is to effectively develop new products for players instead of purely collecting IPs. With the different themes of these five internet novels, such as history, martial arts and Chinese fantasy, Forgame will work closely with the authors to address the players’ needs. Forgame has also invited the authors to participate in the game developing as consultants and content directors in order to retain the core value of the original works to a maximum extent. It is said that ”Nights of General” (将夜) and ”The Bricks” (唐砖) will be as adapted for an action card game and ”The Emperor”(帝尊)will be adapted for an action adventure game in animation style. Furthermore, exclusive servers will be provided for the authors so that the fans can enjoy the game with the authors in these servers.

 
 
Based on Forgame’s long term strategy and great performance in game development and distribution, the cooperation has been successfully implemented. As a leading developer and publisher in webgames since 2012, Forgame has captured the opportunities in mobile games as well. The mobile version of “Soul Guardian”(凡人修真) developed by Forgame and exclusive licensed to Punchbox has ranked top 50 in Appstore for months, which indicates the Group’s strength in mobile gaming industry. It is welcomed by Forgame to co-develop games with developers using the IPs authorized by Qidian, self-owned IPs and external IPs that may be authorized in the future. Forgame is willing to seek various types of partnerships to better develop, publish and distribute games to the market and to provide with great gaming experiences to players.

The authorization of these five literature works is just the first step of Forgame’s IP strategy, and we expect there will be  more cooperation in the future.

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About Forgame Holdings Limited (stock code: 484)
Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on October 3, 2013, Forgame Holdings Limited is a leading developer and publisher of webgames in China with a fast-growing mobile games business. Since its establishment in 2009, the company has successfully developed and launched more than 40 popular games. Its publishing platform, 91wan, has released 105 self-developed and licensed webgames and had attracted over 207 million registered players as of December 31, 2013.