Soft-World

Soft-World International Corporation is a Taiwanese video game distributor, publisher, and developer founded on July 15, 1983 in Taipei. It is the oldest and largest game software company in Taiwan, and the first Taiwanese game company to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2001. The company built its business localizing and distributing Western PC games for the Chinese-speaking market before expanding into self-developed games and, eventually, MMORPG operation across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia.

Localizing Western Games for Taiwan

Soft-World’s early business centered on licensing agreements to bring Western computer games to the Taiwanese market in Chinese. In 1986 the company signed an agency agreement with SSI to reproduce Chinese versions of their games, and by 1987 had agreements with nearly ten major Western publishers including Electronic Arts, Activision, LucasArts, and Accolade. This made Soft-World the primary gateway for PC gaming culture entering Taiwan during the 1980s and 1990s, well before internet distribution existed.

Domestic Development and Sony Partnership

Soft-World established its own research and development department for self-made games in 1989. By 1997 the company had pivoted to also acting as an agent for domestic Taiwanese game producers, and by 1998 represented 24 domestic developers, becoming the largest distributor of Taiwanese-made games in the country. The same year, Soft-World partnered with Sony to research methods for bringing PC games to the PlayStation platform, becoming Sony’s partner in Taiwan for that transition.

The Shift to Online Games and MyCard

As internet adoption grew, Soft-World founded its subsidiary Chinese Gamer International Corp in 2000 to pursue online gaming. The company shifted its primary focus to MMORPG operation through the 2000s, following the broader trend among Chinese-language game companies of that era. Soft-World also operates MyCard, a digital payment platform with extensive coverage across Asian markets, particularly the Greater China region, which has become a significant part of the company’s business beyond direct game publishing. By 2009, Soft-World’s group revenue reached approximately $370 million, reflecting the scale the company had built across its subsidiaries.