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Giant Interactive Group Inc. (NYSE: GA) shares rose today after their hit online game, ZT Online, attracted a record number of simultaneous players. Approximately 2,102,118 players were logged into the system at 8:42PM on April 26, 2008. The leading online game developer attributes the success to new features and improvements made to the game.

"Although our flagship game ZT Online has been commercially launched for over two years now, we have continued our enhancement efforts of the game via constant improvements and new feature releases, in accordance to our focused strategy and our five year R&D game enhancement plan for ZT Online," said Yuzhu Shi, Chief Executive of Giant.

The new features included a "salary system" that allowed non-paying accounts to stay more competitive with their paying rivals; a Neighborhood Friends expansion pack to display the physical location of gamers in order to promote social networks and expand the community; and new server enhancements to accommodate more than 40,000 concurrent players per server.

Giant is one of China's leading online game developers and operators in terms of revenues, focusing on massively multiplayer online role playing games. Its flagship product, ZT Online, was voted the most popular online game in China in 2006, according to the International Data Corporation.

Giant Interactive also has several other titles in the development pipeline. Giant Online has entered into open beta testing while King of Kings III and Empire of Sports are also under development. The company hopes to market these new games through its network of 200 distributors and 116,500 retail outlets.

The Internet is being adopted at a rapid pace in China, which has many investors looking for ways to capitalize on the trends. Giant Interactive's leadership position in online gaming is certainly worth watching as games always represent a large portion of any computer-related industry growth, particularly among those with high disposable incomes.

Shares of Giant International rose $1.13, or 9.14%, to $13.49 on the news.

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