THQ announced today that they have officially opened their new office in Shanghai.  This new Chinese office should serve as ground zero for the upcoming release of Company of Heroes in conjunction with their Chinese market partner and leader, Shanda.  Company of Heroes is a free-to-play, microtransaction based game developed exclusively for the Asian market.  In addition to the CoH title, this new office will spearhead the expansion of local partnerships, along with retaining and maintaining currently existing partnerships.

“The Asian markets represent a significant growth opportunity for THQ, particularly as we execute on our strategy to grow revenue from online gaming, an increasingly important segment for our industry,” said Martin Good, senior vice president THQ Asia Pacific. ‘We look forward to continuing to build new publishing and development relationships in China to expand our presence in this important and fast growing gaming market.”

Marketing Director for the Asia Pacific market, Tim Page will head up new efforts to expand THQ’s portfolio by establishing and maintaining local publishing partnerships, along with bringing THQ content to other markets around the globe.  Building upon his 12 year experience working in the Asia Pacific market, Page has been driving THQ’s new Asia strategy, and has been primarily responsible for a number of successful partnerships, a number of which have yet to be released by THQ.

“We view our China initiative as an integral part of our greater Asia online strategy and Tim Page brings tremendous experience to drive our success in this area,” said Good. “THQ China will be a springboard from which to expand our online games content, including Company of Heroes Online, to neighboring markets across Asia.”

Page isn’t riding solo in Shanghai, as Kevin Chu, corporate director of THQ’s External Development Group (XDG) will be onboard, operating the global outsourcing operations and assisting in local product development.  Chu is no stranger to the video game industry, and has extensive experience in training and building strong teams in the Asia region.  Chu’s specialty lies in brokering co-development partnerships and distributed development projects, resulting in million of dollars of cost savings, elevated product quality and improved production efficiencies.

“Kevin has played an instrumental role in building relationships with many very talented development teams in China,” said Steve Dauterman, senior vice president of product development, THQ. “By expanding our development operations and deepening our commitment to the local market, we will accelerate our growth in Asia and at the same time improve the efficiency of our development processes worldwide.”

THQ’s move couldn’t be better timed, as the Chinese gaming market is on a blazing track.  In 2007 the market value was estimated at $1.7 billion an had a penetration of approx. 42 million online gamers.  This number is expected to more than double to a staggering $4.2 billion by 2010 (Niko Partners).

Tags: asia pacific market, asian markets, chinese market, chinese office, CoH, company of heroes, development relationships, kevin chu, Martin Good, microtransaction, Steve Dauterman, tim page

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