Shanghai-based online game operator The9 Limited announced its second quarter financial results ending June 30, 2008, reporting record revenue of RMB 416.3 million (approx. $60.7 million), largely driven by the continued user growth of World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation in China.

The second quarter rise in revenue represented a 69% increase over the same period in the previous year, which saw RMB 270.0 million (approx. $39.4 million). It was also an increase of 4% compared to the first quarter of 2008, which saw RMB 439.4 million (approx. $64.1 million).

CEO Jun Zhu commented that the positive results came about despite the company closing all of its game servers for three days in May to honor the victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

He also remarked that The9 attained aggregate peak concurrent users of approximately 1.3 for its online games, with World of Warcaft's peak concurrent users alone surpassing the 1-million milestone. As of the second quarter's end, the studio had over 41.5 million total registered users.

Notably, revenue attributable to the operations of item-sales based games, such as revenues from in-game item sales and installation package sales, decreased by 18% to RMB 38.0 million (approx. 5.5 million) compared to the previous quarter, primarily due to decreasd revenue from Granado Espada. The results, however, still show a 134% increase over the same period in the previous year.

Profits for the second quarter increased 3% quarter-over-quarter and 87% year-over-year to RMB 214.0 million (approx $31.2 million). Operating expenses also rose 7% quarter-over-quarter and 35% year-over-year to RMB 100.3 million (approx. $14.6 million) as a combined result of increased sales and marketing expenses relating to World of Warcraft and Soul of The Ultimate Nation, and increased product development expenses due to the growth of The9's game development team.

Said Zhu: "The second quarter of 2008 was a busy and fruitful quarter for us. We further grew our overall player base through constant content upgrades and enhanced penetration efforts toward lower tier regional markets. We added an additional high-quality game, Atlantica, to our strong licensed game pipeline as well as continued to enhance our in-house game development team and effectively strengthened our proprietary game development capabilities. We ramped our long-term and on-going preparations for new game launches before year-end."

He continued: "Separately, we made an investment in G10 Entertainment for approximately US$38 million which further enhanced our existing partnership, especially with respect to full-scale support of the Audition game series. We also formed a joint venture with T3 Entertainment to focus on game development and publishing in July 2008. Through our operational and strategic initiatives, we are gradually and relentlessly executing our business strategy, so as to generate sustainable and scalable long-term growth for the company. "