Troubled Chinese mobile and online gaming company KongZhong (NASDAQ: KONG) has some good news for investors.

It says its latest game Kooky Three Kingdoms has launched successfully, hitting the #1 spot on the China App Store for RPG downloads and the #4 spot for game downloads.

On Android, the game has been launched via platforms such as Qiboo 360, UCWeb, the Baidu-owned 91 Wireless, as well as PP, Peasecod, Duoku and Gfan.

To promote the game, KongZhong has been working with popstar Da Zhangwei, and plans to launch in Korea, Japan and other southeast Asian countries are also underway.

Mind the gap

As for the game itself, it's a Three Kingdoms-themed, fantasy MMORPG that was developed internally. The company has 10 development studios in Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Tianjin.

It's only the fourth smartphone game that KongZhong has released; a fact that has seen its quarterly mobile game revenue hit strongly due to its fast-declining feature phone business.

In the three months ending 30 September 2013, KongZhong made $1.5 million from smartphone games compared to $3.2 million from its legacy feature phone gaming business.