Giant Interactive Group is a major online game developer and operator and this is very much a boom business. It has now opened a new research and development facility in Chengdu, Sichuan province.

Hui Yuan, Giant’s Vice President of R&D, said, ‘The Southwest region has among the highest concentration of online game R&D talent in China. With this new facility in Chengdu, one of the largest cities in the Southwest, we plan to attract the top local game designers and engineers to join our team, thus reinforcing our R&D strength. We are excited by the addition of the Chengdu facility, which will specialize in cutting edge 3D graphics engines and technologies, to complement our existing 2D and 2.5D graphics teams.’

All of which is more important than you think. As an excercise in programming and design an online game is either world class or it is not going to be played. A very, very high order of programming skills is needed and this has to be combined with graphics that work and attract. This is a staggering job and the amount of talent required is practically beyond measurement.

Hui Yuan said, ‘Giant already has one of the most advanced server technologies in the Chinese online game industry, a proprietary technology which allows for one million concurrent users to play together in a single shard in our new game, Giant Online. And, as previously announced, we recently partnered with Huawei Technologies to research additional advancements in server platforms.’

The last bit means we will see it on mobile phones, probably early next year.

Giant is one of China’s leading online game developers and operators in terms of revenues, focusing on massively multi-player online role playing games. Giant’s game, ZT Online, illustrated here, was voted the most popular online game in China in 2006 according to IDC.

Two more are on the way — King of Kings III and Empire of Sports.
Source: PR NewsWire