Taking advantage of the weeklong national holiday in China, online game development company Giant Interactive Group Inc. has tried to sneak through a press release that should cause alarm for investors.

Giant Interactive announced that after a preliminary review of its third quarter 2009 performance, it expects third quarter 2009 revenue to be between CNY272.0 million and CNY291.0 million. This is a big drop from the CNY364 million the company recorded for total revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2009.

The company states the voluntary cancellation during the third quarter 2009 of certain in-game monetization features in compliance with recent virtual currency regulations issued by China's Ministry of Culture has impacted revenue.

Giant Interactive's third quarter results announcement is preliminarily scheduled for release in the middle of November.