Blade & Soul, an NC Soft game operated by Tencent in China, reported some very high user figures such as initial PCU of 1.5 million. This is an MMORPG but it has appealing elements for many types of gamers, including females. Oddly, there were reports of high usage in I-cafés but in our own “man on the street” research in Shanghai, we didn’t see anyone playing the game in I-cafés. On the other hand, even our own Chinese Monthly I-Café Games Usage Data for December 2013 showed strong demand for the games in I-cafés. Maybe we visited at off hours? We will write more about Blade & Soul in our blog this week.