Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The company's name is derived from the company's original slogan, "Java Gaming Experts".
Tencent QQ, also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese tech giant Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software. As of March 2022, there were 563.8 million monthly active QQ accounts.
Miniclip SA was a mobile game publisher and a browser game website that launched in 2001. It was started by Robert Small and Tihan Presbie with a budget of £40,000. In 2008, the company was valued at over £275 million.
The Xbox network, formerly Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at the system's launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One. This same version is also used with Xbox Series X and Series S. This service is the account for Xbox consoles, accounts can store games and other content.
Steam is a video game digital distribution service and storefront by Valve. It was launched as a software client in September 2003 as a way for Valve to provide automatic updates for their games, and expanded to distributing and offering third-party game publishers' titles in late 2005. Steam offers various features, like digital rights management (DRM), game server matchmaking, anti-cheat measures, social networking and game streaming services. It provides the user with automatic game updating, saved game cloud synchronization, and community features such as friends messaging, in-game chat and a community market.
Xfire was a proprietary freeware instant messaging service for gamers that also served as a game server browser with various other features. It was available for Microsoft Windows.
Digital distribution, also referred to as content delivery, online distribution, or electronic software distribution, among others, is the delivery or distribution of digital media content such as audio, video, e-books, video games, and other software.
PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartphones, tablets, Blu-ray players and high-definition televisions. This service is the account for PlayStation consoles, accounts can store games and other content.
Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO), known in South Korea as Dungeon & Fighter (DNF), is a multiplayer beat 'em up action role-playing game, developed and published for personal computers by Neople, a South Korean subsidiary of Nexon, and originally published by Hangame in 2005. The game was originally released in South Korea as Dungeon & Fighter, then in Japan as Arad Senki, and then published in China by Tencent. In 2014, Neople began an alpha test of a global version of Dungeon Fighter Online using the last English version hosted by Nexon, which has since ended.
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
The video game industry in mainland China currently is one of the major markets for the global industry, where more than half a billion people play video games. Revenues from China make up around 25% of nearly US$100 billion video game industry as of 2018, and since 2015 has exceeded the contribution to the global market from the United States. Because of its market size, China has been described as the "Games Industry Capital of the World" and is home to some of the largest video game companies. China has also been a major factor in the growth of esports, both in player talent and in revenue.
VNG Corporation (VNG) is a technology company, founded in 2004, specializing in digital content and online entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce. VNG focuses on four main businesses, including online games, platforms, digital payments and cloud services. Many key products developed by VNG have attracted hundreds of millions of users such as Zalo, ZaloPay, Zing MP3, and 123phim.
Free Realms was a massively multiplayer online (MMO) role playing video game developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) for Microsoft Windows, Mac and PlayStation 3 that is set in a fantasy-themed world named Sacred Grove. The game was released on April 28, 2009, for Windows. The game restricted to free-to-play up to level 4, although there was access to additional game content via a membership fee. The game allowed the player to fight, interact with other players and more. The game was shut down on March 31, 2014; SOE stated that it did not have the resources to keep the game going.
GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt based in Warsaw, Poland. GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through its digital platform for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.
Qzone is a social networking website based in China which was created by Tencent in 2005. It allows users to write blogs, keep diaries, send photos, listen to music, and watch videos. Users can set their Qzone background and select accessories based on their preferences so that every Qzone is customized to the individual member's taste. However, most Qzone accessories are not free; only after buying the "Canary Yellow Diamond" can users access every service without paying extra.
In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of delivering video game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media such as ROM cartridges, magnetic storage, optical discs and flash memory cards. This process has existed since the early 1980s, but it was only with network advancements in bandwidth capabilities in the early 2000s that digital distribution became more prominent as a method of selling games. Currently, the process is dominated by online distribution over broadband Internet.
Suzhou Snail Digital Technology Co., Ltd., doing business as Snail, is a Chinese video game company and a Virtual Network Operator headquartered in Suzhou, China, which has branches Snail Games and Snail Mobile. Its division, Snail USA, is responsible for bringing Snail Games products to audiences in North America, South America & Europe. With a focus on free-to-play online games, Snail Games acts as a developer and publisher of original IP across multiple genres and distribution channels, including massively multiplayer online (MMOs), real-time strategy (RTS), and casual games. Its global registered user base has reached over 70 million accounts, largely driven by its independent games portal Woniu.com. The U.S. operation anticipated the launch of its portal for Western audiences in Q2 2011, PlaySnail.com, to further drive its efforts abroad.
WeGame is the flagship game portal of the Chinese company Tencent.
Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) is an online subscription service for the Nintendo Switch video game console. Nintendo Switch Online features include online multiplayer, cloud saving, voice chat via a smartphone app, access to a library of Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) games, as well as other promotions and offers.
The popularisation of mobile games began as early as 1997 with the introduction of Snake preloaded on Nokia feature phones, demonstrating the practicality of games on these devices. Several mobile device manufacturers included preloaded games in the wake of Snake's success. In 1999, the introduction of the i-mode service in Japan allowed a wide variety of more advanced mobile games to be downloaded onto smartphones, though the service was largely limited to Japan. By the early 2000s, the technical specifications of Western handsets had also matured to the point where downloadable applications could be supported, but mainstream adoption continued to be hampered by market fragmentation between different devices, operating environments, and distributors.
