July 25, 2011
Shanda Games’ The World of Legend still enjoys a high reputation in China. Hong Cai, a 26 year old internet user who illegally monopolized the game’s private servers’ advertising market in China, had earned 10 million dollars in one year. In June, Police arrested Cai and his 18 companions on suspicion that they had monopolize advertising business on online private servers. The criminal ring’s operations were worth about 50 million RMB (US$7.73 million), including about 5 million RMB of illegal income and 7 cars(which is Bentley, BMW,Maserati,Audi,Porsche…).
The arrest has sent shockwaves in the private server industry and led to the closure of a large number of private server websites. Cai is just one of the operators who make a profit by buying private server engines and selling advertisement. Many other people operate private servers and get even higher revenue. Illegal private game services have developed a complete industry chain and it has always been a headache for the game industry in China.