Sony (SNE) President loves WoW

In a letter to customers, John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, discussed his admiration for Chinese online game operator and developer, The9's (ticker: NCTY) licensed game, World of Warcraft (WoW), and the future of online gaming in the United States. Here are some key quotes:

On The9's (ticker: NCTY) licensed game World of Warcraft (WoW):

....now what's been interesting from our perspective is what really serious competition is doing to the online gaming space. World of Warcraft has come on the scene and is doing awesome. Kudos to Blizzard on what I think is a spectacular game. I've played the heck out of it, and I love it (as have many people here at SOE). To a game developer, having another game developer play your game is the ultimate compliment… so to the folks at Blizzard we say "Nicely done".

But don't think for a second that we don't see WoW as both a great game AND Blizzard as serious competition.

On online gaming in the United States:

....in the United States there are around 2 Million paying online gamers (this is after WoW btw). That's up from 250,000 back before EverQuest was released... and I'm only counting the MMO's.. if you start to add in the Pogo's of the world we're probably talking about 3-4 Million online gamers... and I have no idea what scary numbers some of these online poker places are bringing in.

What this means is that making future online games is a big business that is going to be increasingly competitive. I think that's good for you, and good for us. It's going to insure great games get made… and I can tell you we're in this for the long haul.

For more on NCTY's winning exclusive license to distribute World of Warcraft in China, click here.