After years of waiting, Chinese gamers now have something to rejoice about as worldwide hit game Minecraft is finally going to arrive in the country soon.
Chinese game publisher NetEase Inc. announced on Friday that they have already come to a five-year agreement with Microsoft and creator Mojang AB to develop both a PC and a mobile phone version of the popular game for the local audience, Fortune reported.
Particularly, the Chinese version of the game will likely feature subscriptions for online play, as well as purchasing of additional content, as these are popular with Chinese gamers.
NetEase CEO William Ding said that his company is excited with the prospect of bringing the game locally and is optimistic that it will be received well by Chinese gamers. Ding added that their deep understanding of the local gaming market will boost the success of the title.
Initially launched by Mojang in 2011, Minecraft is a so-called sandbox game, in which players do not follow any strict game structure, and are free to do what they want and create their own game scenarios. Upon its release, Minecraft was a worldwide hit, selling over 70 million copies in various platforms.
Microsoft eventually bought Mojang for $2.5 billion and helped increase the game's reach.
However, the game proved to be difficult to launch in China due to the government's strict regulations regarding game releases.
Under Chinese regulations, game publishers need to get at least six different permits to be allowed to launch their titles into the market. However, several of these permits are issued only to local developers, effectively barring foreign game companies from coming in.
With NetEase acting as their local partner, Minecraft's developers have managed to go around these initial hurdles. However, no release date for the game has been announced yet, Endgadget reported.