知名休闲游戏《宝石迷阵》的开发公司PoPCap昨天宣布将于今年底与韩国公司NCsoft合作开发一款面向韩国市场的在线多人社交游戏服务PopCap World。

PopCap World是隶属于PopCap公司的上海游戏工作室开发的首款产品。

创立初期，PopCap Games公司主要发布网站免费下载游戏，慢慢将高达百亿美元产值的休闲游戏产业带进了大众的休闲娱乐生活当中。在过去的十年中，PopCap公司自主开发的游戏下载次数高达15亿次，随后，该公司开始面向Facebook，iPhone和iPad等多种平台开发游戏。

宝石迷阵

近期，PopCap公司致力于开发自己的大型多人在现世界，这一平台能为PopCap游戏带来更稳定的玩家资源。与Ncsoft合作，PopCap公司将会为该公司最受欢迎的13款游戏开发韩国版本，如《宝石迷阵》、《祖玛》和《植物大战僵尸》等。这几款游戏可以免费下载，但以后PopCap会逐步加入一些可选性付费元素。

PopCap亚洲区域副董事James Gwertzman将这款虚拟世界比喻成主题公园，希望韩国玩家可以沉浸其中，畅享游戏。PopCap的合作公司Ncsoft是韩国最大的在线游戏公司，经营《天堂》、《永恒之塔》和《英雄城市》等多款游戏。两家巨头公司的合作将令PopCap的游戏作品更加出类拔萃。众所周知，PopCap公司自己开发的游戏一向题材新颖，广受玩家欢迎，在各个网站都享有一定人气。PopCap World的发行之后，PopCap游戏的死忠玩家们就可以一边交流一边享受游戏的乐趣。目前PopCap公司拥有员工300人，于去年筹集资金高达2250万美元。

Diving online for the first time, PopCap Games — which created the addictive casual game Bejeweled — said today it has teamed up with NCsoft to create an online multiplayer social game service for the Korean market later this year.

PopCap World is the first product being developed by the Seattle company’s Shanghai game studio. Here’s an introductory video released by PopCap.

For most of its history, PopCap Games has published games on online sites where players can download games for a fee. PopCap helped pioneer the multibillion-dollar casual game industry by doing so; PopCap’s own games have been downloaded more than 1.5 billion times over the past decade. Lately, it has moved onto new platforms such as Facebook, iPhone and iPad.

With its own massively multiplayer online world, PopCap will have a chance to catch players permanently, not just casually. Operated by NCsoft, PopCap World will feature 13 of PopCap’s top games, such as Bejeweled, Zuma and Plants vs. Zombies — all built exclusively for Korean players. The games will be free to play, with optional premium paid elements to be added later.

James Gwertzman, PopCap’s vice president for Asia Pacific, compared the new virtual world to a theme park like Disneyland. The aim is to offer Korean players an immersive experience. PopCap’s partner, NCsoft, is one of Korea’s biggest online game companies, operating games such as Lineage, Aion and City of Heroes. The trick will be to differentiate PopCap’s titles in a crowded market. The good thing is that PopCap’s games are unique and popular already. They are available on many different sites, but die-hard fans will be able socialize as they play the games in Korea. PopCap has 300 employees and raised $22.5 million a year ago. （Source：GamesBeat）