Niko's 2011 Southeast Asian Games Market Regional Report is coming soon! 

In Vietnam the popular online game Cross Fire (locally called Dot Kich) has been the target of many hackers. VTC, the game's online operator, had to permanently block 30,000 accounts that violated game regulations in one week alone. This was the latest hacking campaign, and it was named "The Steel Hand." An earlier hacking attack occurred in the game in July. VTC is now under pressure to improve game security to prevent hackers from interfering with the game.

The GAPP recently proclaimed that something needs to be done to increase the "homogeneity" of online games in order to prevent deviation to distasteful content. There is concern that games have become too violent, sexy and of low quality. Technical aspects of games should also be improved, according to the comments given by a GAPP official at a recent industry event. Considering that all games go through the content approval system, Niko Partners is unclear on whether the GAPP representative was referring to online games currently on the market in China, or those on the market everywhere, or those in development.

Chinese online game company Perfect World and Korean game company Nexon (Maple Story, Dungeon Fighter Online, Kart Rider, Sudden Attack, to name a few titles) have created a JV to manage and operate games in Korea. Nexon has relocated its headquarters to Japan and recently announced that it hopes to have an IPO in November on the Tokyo Stock Exchange to raise $1.3 billion. Together these two companies are a formidable force, and perhaps Korea will not be their only jointly -tackled frontier.

Sina Weibo announced an increase of 110 million users in the six months between April and September 2011. That is an enormous increase, considering the company's previous user count was already impressive at 140 million. Tencent Weibo claims to have reached 300 million users, yet they too had far fewer earlier this year. On the other hand, Tencent is making their weibo service more closely linked to QQ messaging, so perhaps users can have easier access to use weibo. There are likely multiple accounts per person for many of the users of both sites. 

Niko Partners is a proud media partner of GDC China in 2011. The 4th Annual Game Developers Conference™ China (GDC China) returns to Shanghai November 12-14, 2011. Presented by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, producers of the Game Developers Conferences®, Game Developer Magazine, and Gamasutra.com, GDC China brings a unique forum and reach into the region. The conference features content programmed by an advisory board consisting of local Chinese develops who share a commitment to promoting and supporting their country's growing games industry. With support from major local and national government entities, GDC China aims to advance the state of digital entertainment in China by incorporating GDC's top-quality content and worldwide community reach. GDC China will present tracks and summits on online game development & business, global game development, mobile games, independent games, and social games.