On Friday Microsoft announced that it will bring Minecraft to China to thanks to a five-year partnership among Minecraft developer, Microsoft (the franchise owner) and NetEase (a local internet company).
According to the reports, the partnership didn’t announce any official release date just yet, but they did mention that the new game will be available for PC and mobile platforms. Unfortunately, no console version is planned, or at least in this part of the release.
Is known that Microsoft is open to accept changes for the Chinese Minecraft version, but it didn’t elaborated on whether any specific content is going to be removed from the game’s format, betanews.com reported.
Owen Hill, Director of creative communications at Mojang (a Microsoft company) said that they are proud because of the announcement of the exclusive agreement to license Minecraft for Pocket and PC to a NetEase, Inc. affiliate in mainland China. He explained that they’re planning to develop a version of the game “tailored for the Chinese market.” He concluded by saying that the announcement probably won’t affect most of the Minecraft’s fans since they probably are not located in the Asian country.
“We’ll always embrace opportunities to bring Minecraft to new players around the world, widening our community, and giving us a new perspective on our game. NetEase understand our long-term vision for Minecraft and support Mojang’s ideals, so we’re delighted to have them on board. We look forward to welcoming China’s builders and adventurers to the world of Minecraft,” said Jonas Martensson, CEO of Mojang.
Minecraf expects to attract a bigger audience
The Minecraft’s player base has now over 100 million gamers, still the company is searching for new ways to improve the game, just as it is looking for some other platforms to the game to be played. Actually, the company recently released a Wii U version and a version for the Gear VR headset, Jonas Martensson explained in a statement.
According to the reports, Microsoft paid $2.5 billion in order to acquiring the game. This is just one of other deals Microsoft have made with China, which has become a lucrative market. In March the company announced that a new and special version of Windows 10 was heading to the Asian country as well.
William Ding, CEO and founder of NetEase, Inc., commented that they are excited to bring Minecraft to Chinese gamers. They expect that their large online community will embrace this preeminent game.
He continued to explain that thanks to their ‘deep understanding’ of the Chinese market feature their ability to successfully launch world-renowned online and mobile games, they will be able to offer a strong platform for the introduction of Minecraft to China’s vast user base. He concluded by saying that they believe this cooperation may leverage the strengths of both Mojang and NetEase, and that it will also provide the world’s largest gamers with a “superior user experience.”
NetEase has previously adapted Blizzard’s Hearthstone and Word of Warcraft to China, slashgear.com reported.
Source: Beta News