submitted by Martin Wilkes
Australian Game Developer secures investment from CDC Games,
a division of CDC Corporation ( NASDAQ : CHINA )
BRISBANE, Qld. ? March 28, 2007 ? Auran Games today announced completion of a AUD$4M capital raising with CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation, China. The equity funds, which will be invested primarily in Auran's upcoming competitive online game, FURY, will help position Auran as a real contender for a major slice of the $3Bn global online PC games market.
?We see the skills, know-how and technology built up by Auran as truly world-class,? said John Lee, president of CDC Games, a newly appointed Auran Board Member. ?Of the dozens of titles we have evaluated throughout the world, FURY is one of the most competitive games not only for the West, but for the Asian markets as well,? said Lee.
?This investment and partnership is just what we were looking for,? said Tony Hilliam, CEO of Auran. ?We have an amazing game, an exceptional team, and now we have both the funding and the partners to help us make Fury a Top 10 title in both the East and the West.?
CDC Games recently announced an increase in their funding to US$100 million as they look for partners that will secure their position as one of the market leaders of online gaming in China and the rest of the world. They have also recently announced investments in a number of games companies from China, Korea and Taiwan. With Australia representing less than 5% of global online PC games sales, the market is currently split into three roughly equal segments. US and Europe has just reached $1Bn in online revenues for 2006; Korea, with just 40 million game mad inhabitants, has been at that $1Bn level for several years; and China is likely to reach the $1Bn landmark this year.
The investment in Auran sees both parties benefit. ?From a financial investment perspective, CDC has invested in a world class development studio and world class product. For both companies, such a synergy will clearly benefit in knowledge and network sharing, distribution synergies, not to mention a large potential financial upside for CDC in the future?, said Lee.
Established in 1995, Auran first came to prominence with the hit RTS "Dark Reign: The Future of War", which won Strategy Game of the Year in 1997. Auran is currently working on 3 titles; Trainz, their long running railroad simulation which has 250,000 registered members world-wide; Battlestar Galactica, an Xbox Live Arcade title being produced for Vivendi Games; and of course FURY, which is set to be one of the biggest MMO's for 2007-08. Auran recently announced US distribution deals for Fury with Gamecock Media and will be announcing European marketing partners in the coming weeks.
FURY, which has been in development by a team of 50 people for more than 2 years, is scheduled for Beta in the coming months. ?Until we hit Beta,? said Mr Hilliam, ?we don?t really know if we?re going to get 100,000 players, a million players, or who knows, maybe even 10 million players. We know that the parochial Aussies will get behind us, and perhaps that will be the driving force that will help us topple the overseas giants.?
For more information on Fury, please visit the official website at
http://www.unleashthefury.com/
About Auran
Auran is one of Australia's leading game development studios. Auran developed the International Game of the Year in 1997 with Dark Reign and is known around the world for their timeless Trainz series. With Battlestar Galactica now in development for Vivendi Universal Games and the XBLA, Auran is now positioned to become one of the leading developers of online and MMO games in the world. www.auran.com
About CDC Corporation
The CDC family of companies includes CDC Software focused on enterprise software applications and services, CDC Mobile focused on mobile applications, CDC Games focused on online games, and China.com focused on portals for the greater China markets. For more information about CDC Corporation (NASDAQ: CHINA), please visit www.cdccorporation.net.
About CDC Games
CDC Games is one of the market leaders of online and mobile games in China with over 45 million registered users. The company pioneered the "free-to-play, pay-for-merchandise" online games model in China with Yulgang, which has received the "Top 10 Most Popular Games" award from the China Game Industry Annual Conference (CGIAC) for two consecutive years, in 2005 and 2006. Stone Age 2, from CDC Games, also received the award for "Most Anticipated Game of 2007" from CGIAC. In March 2007, the company announced the formation of CDC Games Studio, funded by up to $100 million, to establish strategic relationships with selected games development partners to accelerate the development of new, original online games for China and other targeted global geographies.