CDC Games, a business unit of CDC Corporation and pioneer of the "free-to-play, pay for merchandise" model for online games in China, announced today the commercial launch of its new game, 16Pounds, in Thailand through its local distribution partner, Silver Coins Co. Ltd. CDC Games also announced that its upcoming new game for the U.S. market, Lunia Online, was voted by the fans of mmosite.com as one of the top five games in the "Best New Game" category. 

16Pounds is a casual online bowling game with more than 40 unique characters rendered in full 3D cartoon animation. The user interface for 16Pounds is designed for broad audiences regardless of gender and age, requiring minimal learning or prior games skills. The game has been sub-licensed to Silver Coins, by CDC Games International (CGI), a subsidiary of CDC Games. Silver Coins is one of the fastest growing online games publishers in Thailand, and its first online game peaked with the second highest number of concurrent players at the time. Silver Coins also has a well established distribution channel and strong partnerships with local media.

CGI was established in 2007 to leverage the domain expertise of CDC Games to seek out licensing opportunities that are intended to help the company enter targeted global markets including Japan, North America and southeast Asia. CGI intends to launch new online MMO games in Japan and North America through its own operations. CGI has now launched Minna de Battle in Japan, and 16Pounds in Thailand.

"We have successfully launched our first two games outside of China including the launch of Minna de Battle last December in Japan, and 16Pounds this month in Thailand," said Jeff Longoria, president of CDC Games International. "We are also on track to launch Lunia Gold in North America later this quarter. With the momentum we are building in China with new games such as Special Force, and our growing portfolio of games within CGI, we are establishing ourselves as one of the global leaders in online games."