China’s The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY) announced this morning that Taiwan Weibao Digital has purchased the rights to be the exclusive Taiwan and Hong Kong operator of The9′s hit MMORPG game Shenxian Zhuan for $2 million.
The fantasy game, which features buxom ladies like the one pictured at right, is quite popular on the mainland, so $2 million isn’t as crazy-large a figure as it might seem for the right to operate the game in two other big culturally-Chinese gaming markets.
It’s still a big number, though. In fact, it’s the largest sum paid to date for the Taiwan operating rights of a Chinese game. The9 is understandably quite pleased, and presumably so is Taiwan Weibao Digital, who gets to be the exclusive operator of the game for the next three years. Their contract with The9 also apparently includes a minimum earnings clause, although the details of that aren’t clear.