wraggster
August 8th, 2011, 21:40
A Chinese multiplayer online game company is taking note of the success of 'private servers' running pirated and altered versions. In moves that show some common sense, when a pirate server is taken down Shanda Games sees it as a sign of a underserved market. Properly licensed servers are occasionally installed for the geographic location previously covered by the unlicensed servers. Shanda is taking it a step further by developing a new platform that would allow for the flexible rule changes favored in the hacked versions (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/08/05/shanda-co-opting-china%E2%80%99s-online-game-pirates/?mod=WSJBlog&mod=chinablog). Also of interest is the article's reference to the escalation of cyber attacks between private server providers.http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/08/08/195240/Game-Publisher-Following-Pirates-To-Find-a-Market