MySpace has officially announced the launch of the first ever Pan-Asian game applications competition – TheGame08, at the ChinaJoy gaming expo in Shanghai. This is an opportunity for regional developers to showcase their talents by creating the most innovative gaming application that runs on the new MySpace Developer Platform.
From July 17, 2008 through September 14, 2008, developers who are legal residents of China, India, Japan or Korea and at least 18 years of age can can submit their gaming applications through http://developer.myspace.com (for India, Japan, and Korean entries) and http://developer.myspace.cn (for China entries).
One semi-finalist shortlisted from each country will win a free trip to the Tokyo Game Show 2008, where the eventual winner will be chosen by a panel of judges including MySpace President Tom Anderson, IGN executive Peer Schneider and to be announced on October 9.
In addition, the Grand Prize Winner will receive US$30,000 and MySpace will translate the winning game application into English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean; making it available for download by the global MySpace community of more than 117 million users.
While more than 530 million users are already members of global social networks, the recent trend appears to be amalgamating ‘traditionally popular’ sectors such as gaming, video and retail with SNS to cash in on its rising popularity, as in the case of China’s 51.com.
According to findings from a comScore survey, MySpace was tailgating Facebook in the top monthly unique visitors ranking for most popular social network in Asia. Leader of the regional pack, Friendster, is not content to sit on its laurels but has also been busy wooing more Asian users with language customization and new mobile service offerings.
