Updated 28 May, 2012, 2:58 pm IST

Company to Create Chinese Virtual World

02 Jun, 2007, 1:46 pm IST | by Reuters |

Swedish software company MindArk, which operates the online game ''Entropia Universe,'' has authorized a Beijing company to create a version of its online game for the Chinese market.

''Entropia Universe,'' which has more than 580,000 players, is set game set on a fictional planet in which users can work, meet friends, trade and buy virtual land. It's unusual among online games in that its currency is convertible at a fixed rate to the U.S. dollar.

Gothenburg-based MindArk said in a statement Friday that the Chinese virtual world will have a capacity of 7 million concurrent players and aims to draw 150 million users in total.

It said the new game is expected to generate $1 billion in economic activity every year.

Elina Heng, a spokeswoman for the new project, said MindArk aims to launch the new game in August 2008.

Online games are already tremendously popular in China. U.S.-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc.'s ''World of Warcraft,'' the world's most popular online game, already has a licensed Chinese version with more than 3.5 million subscribers. Chinese company Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. has 2.3 million active subscribers for its various games.

MindArk Chief Marketing Officer Carl Uggla said MindArk will train artists from its Chinese partner, Cyber Recreation Development Corp., in Gothenburg to design and run several planets within ''Entropia Universe.''

The MindArk executive said it's up to Cyber Recreation Development to decide whether to allow the Chinese government to censor communications.

Cyber Recreation Development didn't immediately respond to faxed questions from The Associated Press.

Some have expressed worries that China's lack of Western-style civil liberties will carry over to the new virtual society.

Though China's communist government promotes Internet use, it has also set up an extensive surveillance and filtering system to prevent Chinese from accessing material considered obscene or politically subversive.

Hong Kong Apple Daily newspaper predicted Friday in a full-page story virtual police will exist in the Chinese game, and that it won't allow players to protest the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, which killed hundreds of people.

Uggla said ''we don't have any police force in 'Entropia Universe.'''

Google Inc. has acknowledged it agreed to self-censorship in offering a Chinese search site that omits politically sensitive information, such as details of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Its agreement with China has provoked criticism from human rights groups.

Tags: Virtual world

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