[SNDA/Eye] Shanda Acquires Dragon Nest Developer EyeDentity Games

Chinese game publisher Shanda has acquired the Korea-based Dragon Nest developer, EyeDentity Games. Shanda is the publisher of Dragon Nest, MapleStory and many other games in China. Shanda acquired 100% of shares for close to $100 million.

Both Nexon (who publishes Dragon Nest in Korea and soon in North America) and NHN (Japanese publisher of Dragon Nest) also intended to acquire EyeDentity Games in the past but Shanda came out the winner.

Dragon Nest has hit 700,000 concurrent users in China while still being in open beta and is generating $1.7 million per month in Japan. It has enjoyed similar success in Korea. Nexon America will launch Dragon Nest in North America in the first half of 2011.

Eyedentity Games and Dragon Nest will still be run independently after the acquisition like how Ndoors is being run independently even after they were acquired by Nexon.