This Week in China: A little bit of communism, a whole lot of capitalism

With so much business wheeling and dealing, sometimes it’s easy to forget that China is a nation enshrouded in communist principles. This week’s Chinese gaming news brings a subtle reminder of that – though it certainly brings a fair share of capitalism-loving financial actions too.

Thanks to our friends at Beijing-based Laohu.com for sharing this news round-up with our Western readers. If you’re looking for Chinese gaming news daily, be sure to give them a look.

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Thanks to our friends at Beijing-based Laohu.com for sharing this news round-up with our Western readers. If you’re looking for Chinese gaming news daily, be sure to give them a look.

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Representatives attending China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) have been seen fiddling with their phones. State media People’s Daily responded with a diatribe against “representatives who fiddle with phones, microblog live or play games on sessions,” describing such behavior as inactivity and unforgivable dereliction of duty. (Laohu.com)

Sources say Linekong, whose business has transformed to mobile gaming, will list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by September. Linekong has been selecting underwriters from a number of investment banks. Apart from its IPO, Linekong plans to expand to the console game market. The company announced an $80m financing deal earlier this year. (Laohu.com)

Japanese consultancy Kantar published a nine country survey of mobile OS market share. In Japan, 68.7% of new mobile phones run iOS, the highest number among all nine countries. iOS only accounts for 17.4% of new mobile phones in China, which ranks sixth out of nine. (Laohu.com)

Forgame acquired 21% of Magic Feature Inc. (20% if fully diluted) with $70m (HKD 543m). Hong Kong-based Magic Feature develops and publishes mobile games, with major works including Tower of Saviors (????). (Laohu.com)

News
May 31, 2014
Gamespy Servers Shut down Today, Many Classics Set to Expire
By Tom Christiansen
Earlier in the year, Gamespy announced that on May 31st they would cease their online services after nearly fifteen years in operation. While it is always sad to see a games outlet crumble away, what is even sadder is that many games, particularly older titles, relied on Gamespy servers to host their multiplayer functionalities. With a hefty number of games affected by this outage, we decided to check into some of the more popular games which, up until today, utilized Gamespy.Older titles from the Battlefield franchise (Battlefield 1942, Battlefield: Vietnam) look like they're being abandoned by EA. In a statement released by EA following the Gamespy announcement, EA said, "...our teams have been working to evaluate options to keep services up and running. Unfortunately, due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, we do not have a solution at this time." However, the newer Battlefield games (Battlefield 2, Battlefield - Bad Company 2, and Battlefield 2142) look like they are getting transitioned over to Origin.
Reviews
September 6, 2011
Bounce the Bunny Review
By Mike Thompson
If you've never had the opportunity to hurl a small, adorable animal through the air, you're clearly missing out. No, seriously. It's super cathartic, and the animals themselves love it. At least that's what Bounce the Bunny has taught me, and I have yet to receive a lesson from video games that hasn't turned out to be true.

Jim Squires

Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.