Perfect World spent nearly two years building before it earned any revenue. Its predecessor started in Beijing in March 2004 and used that time to write a home-grown 3D game engine and a first online role-playing game, also called Perfect World. Many Chinese game companies licensed their hits from Korean studios. Perfect World wrote its own. In the first quarter of 2007 it earned 40 million yuan, and that July it brought the bet to Nasdaq.

Writing the Engine First

From its founding through 2005, the company was still building its engine, its development platform and its first game. Owning that technology let the studio turn out new titles faster. Players paid nothing to start and bought virtual items inside the games. By 2007 it was also licensing its games to operators overseas, including in Japan and Taiwan. Founder Michael Yufeng Chi, known in China as Chi Yufeng, was chairman and chief executive.

Sixteen Dollars, Then Home

Perfect World sold 11.8 million ADSs at $16 each and listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol PWRD. The stock hit a record high of $50.49 in 2009. By late 2014 it was back near its offer price. On the last day of that year, Chi offered to buy out public holders. His company took Perfect World private in 2015 in a deal worth about $1 billion, and it left Nasdaq that summer.

Cover: The Garden of Paradise, Workshop of Hieronymus Bosch. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a garden of paradise (a perfect world).