Kabam will launch the popular Chinese action-fighting game Blades of Excalibur next month on the web in the U.S., but you can play it now as a demo on YouTube.
You can now play a Flash-based game demo on YouTube, where videos of gameplay are also being hosted. That means that Google’s YouTube has added web-game hosting functionality in addition to its other game promotion services.
Kabam’s newest game will be a fully localized version of the Chinese free-to-play web game Three Kingdoms Action, and the publisher of online games will release it in U.S. next month. Blades of Excalibur is part of Kabam’s effort to fund foreign developers who want to bring their titles to Western markets.
The preview version is a simple side-scrolling fighting game with keyboard controls. You can play a single-player story demo or fight other players in real time via an arena mode.
Joy You in Shangai developed Three Kingdoms Action, and this game generated more than $100 million in revenues last year. Kabam adapted it from mythical ancient China to medieval England, adding a story and theme based on King Arthur and the wizard Merlin.
Kabam says the game will be a tech marvel, claiming it will be the first web-based fighting game that has the speed, responsiveness, and graphical sophistication of a console.
The publisher has set up a $50 million development fund for Asian developers, and 30 games are already part of that program and are in various stages of publication.