Atlantica Online recently won a Golden Plume Award for Best Foreign Online Game at the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Beijing.

Atlantica’s victory comes as the game is preparing to enter beta testing in China. Atlantica developer NDOORS Inc. signed a publishing deal with Chinese gaming leader The9, which publishes World of Warcraft in China, last April. Beta on the Chinese edition of Atlantica is expected to begin in early 2009.

The full press release is below.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – Nov. 18, 2008 – Atlantica Online, the new strategic turn-based MMORPG, won a Golden Plume Award for Best Foreign Online Game. The prestigious prize was bestowed upon the best games in China by the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) on Nov. 4 in Beijing.

Atlantica’s victory comes as the game is preparing to enter beta testing in China. Atlantica developer NDOORS Inc. signed a publishing deal with Chinese gaming leader The9, which publishes World of Warcraft in China, last April. Beta on the Chinese edition of Atlantica is expected to begin in early 2009.

“Atlantica is The9’s most anticipated title,” said Jun Zhu, CEO, The9. “The title has a great premise with its combination of reality and fantasy and the legend of Atlantis. Atlantica will make a big impact in China’s online game market, especially with its exciting turn-based battle system.”

Atlantica has already made an impression on the Chinese, who are tapping into the Atlantica action on the Korea- and U.S.-based game servers.

“It’s an honor to be awarded the prestigious Golden Plume, especially considering Atlantica has yet to launch in China,” said Cho Seong Won, CEO, NDOORS Inc., which is based in South Korea. “We can’t wait to finish the localization process and prepare new content for gamers in China. We plan on living up to the expectations, which have just been set higher by this honor.”

Atlantica has been winning other accolades in addition to the Golden Plume. In Japan, where it is being published by Nexon Japan and is in open beta, Atlantica has hit number one in a most popular games list at 4gamer.net, one of Japan’s most influential webzines. In North America, Atlantica has reached number one on MMORPG.com’s “Most Popular” list and has been the top free-to-play game for three straight months at TenTonHammer.com.

With its licensing deal with Taiwan’s leading publisher Gamania, Atlantica will be reaching four of the major gaming markets in the world.

Atlantica Online is a strategic, turn-based RPG that merges traditional RPG gameplay and heavy strategic gameplay elements with a mercenary and nation management system. The turn-based combat gives players the chance to control a party of up to nine characters. In the mercenary system, players can recruit and develop mercenaries of different classes for their combat squad. The nation management system allows guilds to plan the conquest of cities and even whole nations.