Free-to-play Chinese MMO company CDC Corporation announced an expansion of its business partnership with Sonokong, a Korean toy and game entertainment company. The expanded partnership includes the licensing in China of a new game called Dragonsky, as well as Sonokong’s commitment to continue support of content updates for Shaiya Online. Additionally, the companies will partner to distribute Shaiya in Taiwan through local publisher MacroWell.

The agreement gives CDC exclusive distribution rights in China for Dragonsky currently in development in Korea by Sonov with support from Sonokong, and anticipated for a commercial launch in the second quarter of 2008. Dragonsky is a Chinese martial arts-themed MMORPG set in medieval times. CDC's OPTIC division, which currently operates Shaiya, will operate the game in China.

Dragonsky is part of CDC's lineup of anticipated 2008 online games planned for development or distribution, also including The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, Stone Age 2, ChaosGem, Come on Baby, Gemfighter and Red Blood.

CCP and Sonokong recently partnered, along with other Chinese developers, to form the Online Games Alliance Against Piracy (OGAAP), which intends to establish a platform for industry participants and stakeholders to develop standards and enact legislation to prevent piracy of copyrighted online games and game content.

“We are very happy to expand our already productive and successful partnership with CDC Games,” said Dr. Choi Shinkyu, chairman of Sonokong. “Working with CDC Games, we have established a trusted relationship based on mutual benefit. Our expertise in entertainment and games design and development, and the expertise of CDC Games in marketing, distribution and operations are highly complementary and we look forward to a continued productive relationship. Additionally, we are proud to participate in the OGAAP initiative alongside CDC Games and the other founding members to actively fight and prevent piracy in our industry.”

“Based on the current popularity of Shaiya Online in Korea and China, we expect to achieve similar results in Taiwan,” said Calvin Lin, chief executive officer of MacroWell. “We are very pleased to initiate our distribution partnership with Sonokong and CDC Games in Taiwan and look forward to achieving great success together now and in the future.”