It does boggle the mind sometimes as to how a decent beat ‘em up or fighting game could actually be translated into another format, for example being turned into a RTS genre or collectible card game. Well, the famous King of Fighters franchise will soon take a different twist if Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited has its way after having entered into an agreement with SNK Playmore Corporation of Japan. This collaboration will result in The King of Fighters’ World (”KOF World” in short), which is in essence, an online version of SNK Playmore’s flagship game The King of Fighters (”KOF”). Shanda Games will be granted the right to operate KOF World in mainland China and a number of other countries under this agreement.

KOF World is adapted from The King of Fighters XII (”KOF XII”), the latest installment of SNK Playmore’s KOF franchise. In addition to porting the main game content of KOF XII to an online platform, KOF World will also combine traditional fighting game and MMORPG features by adding a complete multiplayer role playing game (RPG) mode. The RPG part of KOF World will be customized for the Chinese market by including scenes of Shanghai, Xi’an, Beijing and other Chinese cities in the game.

According to Ms. Diana Li, CEO of Shanda Games, “KOF is a fighting franchise with 15 years of history, and we are excited to partner with SNK Playmore on the game’s online version. SNK Playmore has very strong expertise in fighting and action genres. The partnership between Shanda Games and SNK Playmore combines and leverages our strengths in game development and operation. With the original KOF feel and rich RPG content, we believe KOF World will be a very exciting online game.” We are interested to see just how this will develop, and whether many people will hop aboard the bandwagon. Surely it will be havoc seeing a bunch of the same character running around all over the place, or will it be totally different and refreshing unlike anything we’ve seen before?

Press Release

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