Consumers in the U.S. frequently line up to pay $60 apiece for each year's installment of Activision Blizzard Inc.'s ATVI +4.31% biggest franchise, 'Call of Duty.' But when the war-simulation shooting game reaches China's shores later this year, Activision will take a different tack: giving it away for free.
The Santa Monica, Calif., company is responding to the peculiarities of the fast-growing Chinese market, where game consoles barely have a presence and people typically gather in PC-laden Internet cafes to play free games that are supported by sales of virtual goods.
The new, free version of 'Call of Duty' will be available online only to Chinese videogame players. Activision will try to make money by selling items to help users play the game, such as enhancements for their weapons or extra gear.
To help bring the game to market, Activision signed a multiyear exclusive licensing agreement with Tencent Holdings Ltd., 0700.HK +2.65% a popular Internet company in China that offers games, social networking and e-commerce.
The China version isn't simply a rehash of existing titles: It's completely new, with a different design and storyline that took two years to produce, Activision said. The company created the game at a studio in China to ensure it would appeal to gamers' tastes there, said Bobby Kotick, Activision's chief executive.
'The game is incredible,' Mr. Kotick said. 'How you play, what you play, customization of weapons, the types of characters, the equipment you use, the game modes, and the maps are all unique to the Chinese market.'
The game is being fine-tuned for PC gamers' use in China's Internet cafes, Activision said. And while there will be an intricate storyline for the game─as is typical with many games from the series─Activision also is including the popular multiplayer options, with specialized digital shootout locations that were designed with Chinese players in mind.
The game will go into public testing later this year, following regulatory reviews.
Activision invested about the same amount of money producing 'Call of Duty' for China as it does for one of the installments in the U.S., Mr. Kotick said. Analysts estimate the games cost at least $50 million to produce each year.
The move is a risky one, analysts say, because Chinese consumers are so different from those in the Western world. But the Chinese market is large and growing, representing an important opportunity.
'No one's done it really well yet,' said Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities. He said many Chinese gamers have grown accustomed to buying virtual goods in lower-quality games. So, it's possible they might be willing to pay even more in a game with higher production values. In addition, he said, war-simulation shooting games have become popular there, creating an inroad for the 'Call of Duty' games. 'It's a good experiment and a worthy one.'
Recreating the game for the Chinese market, using a Chinese studio, also will likely help draw customers. The game will be marketed with a slightly different title: 'Call of Duty Online.'
'You can't simply go into China, open the doors, and say 'Here's our product, go play it',' said Edward Williams, analyst at BMO Capital Markets. He added that many game makers tend to release games in pieces over there, creating the basic struts of the game at first and then filling it in as more people play. 'If you start off with as big a budget as a traditional console game and hope you generate enough money, there's a substantial amount of risk,' he said.
The move isn't Activision's first in China. The company inked a deal to bring its 'World of Warcraft' online fantasy game to China seven years ago.
But 'Call of Duty' is an even more lucrative franchise, drawing throngs of excited fans to launches that typically come during the holiday shopping season in the U.S. The latest installment, 'Modern Warfare 3,' in which gamers play soldiers from various countries shooting through firefights around the globe, sold about 6.5 million copies in its first 24 hours, grossing more than $400 million, making it one of the biggest videogame launches ever.
Activision's Mr. Kotick said he believes the time and effort put into tailoring the game for the Chinese market will help to cement its success there, too.
Martin Lau, the president of Tencent─which has the exclusive license to operate 'Call of Duty Online' in mainland China─said his company was devoting 'substantial' resources toward promoting the game, though he declined to say how much. But, he said, the title will be positioned as a star product in the company's game lineup.
Mr. Lau added that while 'first-person' shooting games─called such because the player experiences the game as if he or she is looking through the main character's eyes─are a large and mature market in the U.S., these types of games are still a nascent genre in China and have a lot of potential to grow.
''Call of Duty' has established itself as the gold-standard in gaming for years,' he said. 'We believe its online version will be very well-received by gamers in China.'
在美国，消费者经常会排队购买动视暴雪公司(Activision Blizzard Inc.)每年推出的最新版电子游戏《使命召唤》(Call of Duty)。这套该公司旗下最大的特许经营游戏零售价60美元。但当这个战争模拟射击游戏今年晚些时候登陆中国市场时，动视暴雪则会采取一种不太一样的策略：免费供应。
动视暴雪说，正在对该游戏进行微调，以方便中国电脑游戏玩家在网吧里玩。这款游戏的故事情节复杂(《使命召唤》系列游戏一般都是如此)，动视暴雪还将加入受玩家欢迎的多人模式，并且考虑到游戏的目标群体是中国玩家，还特别开发了数字枪战场景。
在通过监管审查以后，这款游戏将于今年晚些时候进行公开测试。
科蒂克说，动视暴雪开发中国版《使命召唤》所投资金与在美国市场上开发一版该系列游戏的投资金额大致相同。据分析人士估计，这款游戏每年的制作成本至少为5,000万美元。
分析人士指出，这是个有一定风险性的举动，因为中国消费者与西方消费者很不一样。不过，中国市场规模庞大，而且还在不断增长，也就意味着这里蕴含重大机遇。
Bloomberg News动视暴雪公司推出的最新版电子游戏《使命召唤》。证券公司Wedbush Securities的分析师帕彻特(Michael Pachter)说，还没有谁做得非常好。他说，中国很多游戏玩家已经习惯于在质量不那么尽如人意的游戏中购买虚拟物品。这就是说，他们还是有可能愿意在制作成本更高的游戏中花更多钱的。他说，除此以外，模拟战争场景的射击游戏已经在中国流行开来，为《使命召唤》之类的游戏进入创造了条件。他说，这是一次很好的试验，一次值得做的试验。
聘请中国制作公司针对中国市场对游戏进行重新设计，同样也有可能起到吸引用户的作用。这款游戏将使用一个稍微不同的名字：“使命召唤OL”(Call of Duty Online)。
蒙特利尔银行资本市场公司(BMO Capital Markets)的分析师威廉姆斯(Edward Williams)说，你不能就那么进入中国，敲开一扇扇门，然后说这是我们的产品，拿去玩吧。他说，中国很多游戏生产商往往都是分段发布游戏，先建立游戏的基本框架，然后在玩家越来越多的时候逐步充实。他说，如果你一开始就投入一笔传统电视游戏那样大的预算，希望赚到足够多的钱，那么风险就会非常大。
这次不是动视暴雪在中国的第一个动作。七年前该公司通过一笔交易把奇幻网游《魔兽世界》(World of Warcraft)引进了中国。
但《使命召唤》系列更加有利可图，每一次首日销售都吸引了大量兴奋的粉丝。美国的首日销售活动一般是在假日购物季举行。最新一款的《使命召唤：现代战争3》(Modern Warfare 3)在开卖24小时就卖出了650万份，收入超过4亿美元，成为有史以来最盛大的电子游戏首日销售活动之一。在这款游戏里，游戏玩家扮演来自不同国家的士兵，在全球各地的不同场景中交火。
科蒂克说，他相信为中国市场量身定做《使命召唤》所费的时间和精力也将有助于巩固公司在中国市场取得的成功。
腾讯公司获得了在中国大陆运营《使命召唤》的独家授权。腾讯总裁刘炽平表示，该公司将把大量资源投入这款游戏的推广当中，但他没有透露具体数额。他说，《使命召唤》将被定位成腾讯游戏中的明星产品。
刘炽平还说，虽然第一人称射击游戏（所谓“第一人称”是指玩家在游戏中的过程中，彷佛是通过角色的眼睛在进行观察）在美国是一个庞大而成熟的市场，但这类游戏在中国还方兴未艾，有很大的成长潜力。
他说，《使命召唤》已经成为多年来游戏业界的标杆，我们相信在线版将大受中国游戏玩家的欢迎。
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