Just like in the popular MMO, Rifts are popping up all over the world. In a statement this week, Trion Worlds’ CEO Lars Buttler made the announcement that a partnership with Shanda Games would allow them to extend the title into China. In fact, they are currently looking at a release date within 2012. According to Buttler, Shanda fell in love with Rift and that’s a big part of why TW chose that particular publisher for their Asian market.

Of course, there’s a lot more to localizing a game that just translating the quest text. Making the game ready for Chinese players will involve adjusting several of the game’s mechanics to be more in line with what that market sees as the ”norm.” Rift’s team will be relying on Shanda to help them fine-tune the title for an Asian audience, as well as to publicize the offering. Shanda already publishes a number of MMOs in China, including Ragnarok Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Company of Heroes and MapleStory.

Online gaming is a huge industry in China; in fact, Chinese players represent the largest group of online gamers in the world, with nearly two-thirds of all people playing something online at one point or another. These gamers do, however, have to deal with some restrictions in their games. For example, game addiction is a big issue in China, and Rift will need some type of mechanic to help combat that problem. Also, the game’s content must be thoroughly combed for any references that

• violate the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China
• could damage the nation’s glory
• could disturb the social order
• infringe upon others’ legitimate rights

There are a number of other issues that Chinese authorities have with their online games, including references to undead or zombies and over the top violence, such as the gore and  blood found in many online games.

It’s going to be a long and arduous process for the localization team, but once they’ve completed their necessary work, we can probably expect to see Rift installed in nearly every system in Internet cafés all over China.

With its recent release in Russia, Rift is slowly but surely inserting itself into the global gaming population, and that’s a good thing. The more successful the game is, the money development money Trion Worlds will have to continue adding content in the form of patches and larger expansions. If you love Rift, you’ll love that it’s going world-wide. Trion has already managed to raise more than $85 million in development funds, based on Rift’s success thus far and the company’s upcoming online RTS End of Nations. That money will surely equal more Rift in the future for gamers to explore and enjoy.

Published on: Feb 11, 2012
By: TJSonntag