SHANGHAI, China, May 23 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (Nasdaq: SNDA), or Shanda, a leading interactive entertainment media company in China, announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Nowcom Co., Ltd, or "Nowcom," a leading Korean online game distributor and operator, for the exclusive license to operate TalesRunner, a 3D online sports-themed running game, in mainland China. The game is expected to enter commercialization in China in the third quarter of 2007.
TalesRunner is set in a "dreamy" island world and challenges players to race though a variety of terrains, over rivers, down ski slopes and up mountains. The game features a mix of different courses and game-speed modes. Developed by the Korean company Rhaon Entertainment, TalesRunner has gained a solid reputation following its release in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand. The game recently recorded over 80,000 peak concurrent users in Korea.
"TalesRunner is the first sports-themed running game to be introduced in the Chinese online game market. We believe games like this will attract a great deal of interest in China due to the excitement surrounding the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing." said Tianqiao Chen, CEO of Shanda. "As an advanced, high-quality casual game, TalesRunner will be an excellent fit for our CSP model，and will further diversify our product line. We are very confident that the game will become popular among game players in China, particularly given its performance in other Asian markets and our expertise and experience operating casual games."
Mr. Mun Yong-Sik, CEO of Nowcom, also expressed confidence in the future of TalesRunner in China. "I am very glad that Nowcom has entered into this collaboration with Shanda, China's leading interactive entertainment media company and most successful casual game operator. We are confident that TalesRunner will bring game players a different experience, and believe that the game’s sports theme, fairy-tale setting and professionally illustrated characters will appeal to casual game players in China."
About Nowcom, Co., Ltd.
Nowcom, Co., Ltd. was established in 1992 and used to run NOWNURI, one of the four biggest PC communication services in Korea. Nowcom is currently running PDBOX, the biggest entertainment portal in Korea, CLUBBOX, mass storage for community and Afreeca, the personal broadcasting media. Nowcom has an ambitious goal of becoming a leading company based on world-class digital media delivery service and solution provider. For more information about Nowcom, please visit http://www.nowcom.co.kr .
About Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited (Nasdaq: SNDA) is a leading interactive entertainment media company in China. Shanda offers a portfolio of diversified entertainment content including some of the most popular massively multi-player and casual online games in China, along with online chess and board games, network PC games and a variety of cartoons, literature works and music. Shanda’s interactive entertainment platform attracts a large and loyal user base, of which more and more is coming from homes. Each user can interact with thousands of others and enjoy the interactive entertainment content that Shanda provides. Interaction enriches your life. For more information about Shanda, please visit http://www.snda.com .
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the companies and the industry. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the commercialization date of TalesRunner is expected to begin and the future appeal of TalesRunner to users in China. These forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. Although the companies believe that their expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they cannot assure you that their expectations will turn out to be correct. Important risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to be materially different from expectations include but not limited to the risk that commercialization of TalesRunner may be delayed, the risk that TalesRunner is not well received by users in China and the risks set forth in Shanda's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission, including Shanda's annual report on Form 20-F.
For more information, please contact:
Frank Liang
Director of Corporate Financing Investor Relations
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited
Tel: +86-21-5050-4740 (Shanghai)
Email: IR@shanda.com.cn
Crocker Coulson (investors): crocker.coulson@ccgir.com
Elaine Ketchmere (media): elaine.ketchmere@ccgir.com
CCG Elite
Tel: +1-310-231-8600 (USA)
