Shanda Games can lay claim to the title of the biggest U.S. IPO so far in 2009—but the gaming company still failed to live up to the tremendous hype around its launch. A spinoff of Shanghai-based Shanda Interactive Entertainment, the newly-public company priced its shares at $12.50 upon opening on Friday, Sept. 25. It sold 83.5 million shares in total—20.5 million more than originally planned—but by market close, the price had fallen by 14 percent to $10.75.

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The consensus was that Shanda Games’ history of delivering both solid revenue and profits would attract investors and maintain its high share price, so the mediocre performance had analysts like IPOBoutique.com’s Scott Sweet puzzled. “This is a complete shock,” he told TheStreet.com. “This had more international demand than A123.” (A123 Systems is a car battery manufacturer that IPOd the day before Shanda Games; the company currently isn’t profitable, but its share price rose by 50 percent on its debut).

Shanda Games’ lukewarm first day was also a sharp contrast to rival gaming company Changyou’s April IPO. Changyou’s stock closed at 25 percent above its opening price of $16 that day.