Shanda Games' fourth-quarter profits fall

Shanda Games Ltd, China's top online game developer, said on Feb 26 that its net revenues declined more than 20 percent year-on-year because of slow business growth in the country.

Shanda's fourth-quarter net revenue hit 1.08 billion yuan ($172 million) compared to 1.36 billion yuan a year ago.

The Shanghai-based company is eyeing overseas markets to boost income.

CEO Zhang Xiangdong said the "solid performance" of Shanda's Dragon Nest in overseas markets and of mobile game Million Arthur in South Korea helped boost revenue.

The growth rate of China's online game industry remained flat in the fourth quarter. Market scale of preloaded online games was 12.2 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year, while the sum hit 10.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2011, data from Analysys International showed.