Shanda Localizes U.N. Food Force Game For China

Shanda Interactive, a Chinese developer of MMORPGs and casual games, has announced a partnership with the United Nations' World Food Programme to produce a localized version of Food Force for the Chinese market. The game, which is designed to educate children about world hunger and what they can do to help combat it, will be localized, operated, and marketed by Shanda in China. The original Food Force is a free game developed in English and downloadable from the project's website. Players of the game compete for scores, which are registered online, while learning about ways to fight hunger. The site has so far seen 10 million hits in its six months online. "The message of this game -- of helping the hungry -- is transnational," said WFP executive director James Morris. "Thousands of enthusiastic comments have been posted on the site from all over the world, and one of the recurring questions has been 'When will you make Food Force in my language?' Our answer has been: we're working on it. Now, with Shanda's help, we can bring a localized version of Food Force to China." The Chinese version marks the second localized version of Food Force to be released after the Japanese version went online earlier; French and Italian editions are scheduled to follow by the end of 2005.