Gaming firm eyeing unified SEA market

Southeast Asia has seen phenomenal growth for Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) during the past few years. The increase in the region’s demand for online games was nothing short of remarkable.

Now, as next-gen techno-logy dawns in Southeast Asia, the region is in the verge of another gaming evolution, as one firm takes the steps to a consolidated online gaming market for the region.

Infocomm Asia Holdings Pte. Ltd. (IAH), a Singapore-based online games investment company, announced its plans to unite the Southeast Asian region through its event, "One Market, One Asia", an online gaming conference held last Sept. 27 in Singapore.

The conference aimed to promote one massive, lucrative market for the whole of Southeast Asia, as the region faces an explosion in the number of online games and subscription revenue.

IAH, led by founder and CEO Roland Ong, also hopes to make Singapore the regional base in online game hosting, letting local distributors put up their servers in one integrated hub.

The conference discussed the issues facing many local distributors today, which include being overlooked by top game developers because of their relatively small market.

IAH asserts that when the consolidated market for SEA pushes through, bigger, better opportunities will be made available for both local publishers and big-name developers.

Unveiled with the announcement were two A-level Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) recently acquired by IAH for regional distribution: Granado Espada, a baroque-themed opus from Ragnarok creator Hak-kyu Kim and his company, IMC games, and Hellgate: London, an RPG-cum-FPS hybrid from Flagship Studios’ Bill Roper, the man behind gaming classics Diablo and Warcraft.

Kim and Roper were both present in the conference as speaker in the fora, along with other high-profile game entrepreneurs from across Asia. Scores of local game distributors and the press participated in the event.

The two leading Philippine-based gaming companies were there: IP E-Games (Ran Online, O2 Jam) and Level-Up (Ragnarok, Freestyle). The first mover in Free-to-Play space in the Philippines, IP E-Games, has leapfrogged other competitors into the top spot in terms of subscriber base in both MMORPG and Casual Games segments. Level-Up, recently acquired by ePLDT, pioneered MMOGs in the country and was the dominant publisher from 2002 to 2005.

Regional platform

"The Southeast Asian market is ripe for consolidation into a regional platform. A united Southeast Asia represents one of the largest and most lucrative markets for online gaming. This will be further enhanced by cross-border synergies between leading game publishers in their respective markets," says Enrique Gonzalez, CEO of IP E-Games.

Steve Tsao, president of IP E-Games, agrees. "It will bring more attention to the Southeast Asian market. More quality content will be available if they can talk to one representative of a unified market. We hope to be the ones to distribute these top-tier games in the Philippines," he says.

Acquisition of Granado Espada and Hellgate: London beefs up IAH’s plan to create a massive alliance between online gaming distributors in the region. Studies conducted by research firm International Data Corp. shows that the region’s market for online games will steadily grow in the next few years, with up to $3.6 billion in total revenues by 2010.

At present, combined user concurrency for a top online game in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand exceeds 350,000, or about half that of online game giant China.

According to Ong, IAH has already raised more than $10 million through its seed round of financing, making the company the most well-funded online games start-up for the region.

The event was not complete without trying out the games. The two MMORPGs acquired by the IAH herald the arrival of next-gen online games in Southeast Asia, and are among the most anticipated in the region.

Granado Espada is set in the Mediterranean during the Baroque period. This period was known as an age of discovery and exploration, a time when Europe was at the height of expansion, and the game interweaves these facts to its own fantasy setting.

One unique feature appearing in Granado is the ability to play up to three characters at the same time. This is part of the revolutionary "family" system developed by Kim, where characters all share a single family name, and more than a dozen characters can be developed in one account. The game also boasts a highly dynamic classical soundtrack, and graphics never before seen in an Asian MMORPG.

Hellgate: London, on the other hand, placed itself in the English capital, albeit in a chaotic post-apocalyptic period. Players act as members of a mysterious organization bent to destroy a race of hellspawn-like invaders. These monsters came from an otherworldly dimension, into our realm, through dimension portals or "hellgates."

The revolutionary part of the game is the combination of RPG and FPS elements in an MMOG, where players can use first- or third-person perspectives to attack enemy monsters. Random quests, monster and maps are promised to appear in-game, making gaming experiences distinct from each other. Localization elements are also guaranteed, as items and weapons indigenous to the region appear as usable products within the game.

As plans for a massive market for SEA progresses, IAH promises other high-quality games to be made available for regional distribution.