While US and European games publishers are looking at cost control, studio closures and general belt-tightening, China's Shanda Games has just announced a one billion US dollar initial public offering (IPO). In short, in a time of recession, the company is asking North American investors to buy a billion dollars worth of shares.

Shanda Games - an off-shoot of Shanda Interactive Entertainment - makes MMOs for the Chinese market. This places it in direct competition with Activision Blizzard partner, Netease which relaunched World of Warcraft in China this month.

^{Sources:
Reuters
WSJ}