Despite the massive devastation of China's recent earthquake, CDC Games, headquartered in China, said today that its revenues for its online games have rebounded almost immediately. Judging by the images on the news, it's easy to doubt that any Chinese are in the mood to play - but CDC says that's not so, despite the fact that its game service was suspended for three days due to the tragedy.
"In fact, on May 24, 2008 daily revenues for CDC Games were 1.3 million RMB, or approximately (U.S.) $187,000. In addition, the company has seen strong revenue growth from Shaiya, a massively multiplayer online role playing fantasy game (MMORPG) launched by CDC Games in December 2006."
China's online RPG culture dwarfs online gaming anywhere else in the world, and it's interesting to see that even (or especially) in the wake of a tragedy, gamers are making room for their favorite pastime. The image shown here, from CDC's Shaiya Online, is certainly much more comfortable to look at than this gallery of Seattle Times images from the center of the devastation.