interesting,,,

china.seekingalpha.com/article/36196

"With respect to Soul of The Ultimate Nation, SUN, we commenced All-access Open Beta Testing for the game on April 18th. Within one week of open beta testing, SUN PCU have exceeded 400,000. Subsequently, we opened sixth server site and top of the state server sites to allow more users to experience the exciting SUN game. In addition, we will soon announce a strategic co-marketing partnership with a renowned fast-moving consumer goods brand to promote SUN through China.

We've recently announced that SUN will adopt the free play plus item sales model and have just started selling SUN game points through The9 physical and the virtual card distribution network, as well as direct through online transaction. So far, we have seen strong demand from users. We will launch SUN’s online shopping mall on May 24th, allowing players to purchase virtual items and various value added services within a game.

The encouraging performance SUN has achieved during its All-access Open Beta Testing, once again demonstrated The9's strong operational capabilities. We view it as an important milestone for The9 as we transit from one game operation to many game operations and diversify the revenue sources for the company."