First things first: if you want to play the Incorruptible Fighter game that everyone has been talking about, you’d have to look pretty hard to find it. The official site has been taken down, and no one seems to have bothered putting it on any torrents. The former suggests it drew unwanted attention, the latter suggests it was probably just a crap game.
It was developed by the Ningbo city government, apparently. Most games developed by governments tend to be shite, the only notable exception being America’s Army. So, don’t have high hopes for any future projects from Ningbo.
But do keep an eye on Shanghai. Gamasutra has a great article about the various activities going on there.
On the other hand, Ubisoft Shanghai is a premier, AAA game developer. They’ve been around since 1996 and have shipped some really impressive titles(like the singleplayer section of Splinter Cell Double Agent- with a scene in Shanghai, coincidently). They employ a lot of expatriates in their studio.
EA China, on the other hand, focuses on local talent to produce games aimed at the local market. The risk here is obviously the huge piracy problem. There are also plenty of Chinese owned studios as well, most notably NetEase. Whilst not just a game developer (they have a range of internet services) their MMO 梦幻西游 (lit. Fantasy Westward Journey, but there must be a better translation. ‘The Fantastic Westward Journey” perhaps)
Another section of the development market prominent in China is the outsourcing business, again sometimes foreign run, sometimes Chinese.
I wonder if any studios exist in Beijing- something worth looking into.
