Category Archives: Asia

At the Edinburgh Interactive Conference, BMO Capital Markets’ Edward Williams told attendees that the gaming market has suffered “significant disruption” to its business model.

“For Western publishers, profitability hasn’t grown at all in the past few years and that’s before we take 2009 into account,” he said while stating that the opposite could be claimed from the Chinese sector.

Chinese firms were seeing improved profits due to the PC market and direct download methods rather than the traditional way used by Western firms releasing titles on DVD per retail outlets. Developers in China also do not have to pay as much in royalties to console makers because of the low number of console users.

Three factors, Williams explained, are causing the Western games market to decline:

• Games are getting larger, which meant longer development time and larger staff costs.
• In the 1990s the PlayStation accounted for 80% of the market, today the console space is very fragmented, so developers have to work on many platforms at any one time.
• The cost of licensing intellectual property or gaining official sports body endorsement (such as FIFA or FIA) has gone up.

Speaking to the BBC, Peter Moore agreed that while there’s a difference in the markets, Westerner will start warming up to digital distribution soon.

“In China, PC and mobile platforms will continue to dominate,” he said. “There isn’t the necessity to buy other pieces of hardware and it is our job to service that. In Europe we are going to see more content that’s delivered electronically, be that through Steam, Xbox Live or whatever.”

“The release of Tiger Woods online as a free to play experience will be the real test of the Western consumer’s appetite for digital downloading.”

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences said today that the DICE Summit – thus far restricted to Las Vegas – is to get an Asian version this year.

The new event will take place at Singapore’s Suntec Center, the same venue used for Games Convention Asia, on September 17.

GPG’s Chris Taylor and NanaON-Sha boss Masaya Matsuura are both to “feature,” apparently.

There’s a press release here. Thanks, Joystiq.

Global Industry Analysts (GIA) expects the global gaming market to reach $91 billion by 2015.

The report, titled Video Games: A Global Strategic Business Report, was complied by GIA reviewing trends in gaming from 2001-2015.

It was concluded that growth can be attributed to the climbing installed bases of consoles, the popularity of MMOs, mobile games, more customers acquiring high speed internet, and the increased access to all of these in developing countries in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Due to purchasing figures for PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, gamers in Europe and North America spent the most in 2009, with East Asia and Japan driving the sales of MMOs, and mobile phones games driving the market in developing countries.

The full report can be viewed here.

Via IndustryGamers.

Warhammer Online is to launch in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau next week via GigaMedia’s FunTown game platform, Kotaku reports.

The Mythic MMO currently has around 300,000 subs in the US.

Up to 8,450 game industry professionals have lost their jobs since July 2008, according to analyst Wanda Meloni.

Around 6,300 jobs have been lost from the North American trade, the rest coming from Asia and the UK.

Meloni noted that multiple studios have bitten the dust during the period.

“A handful of others are on life support, operating with a skeletal workforce and actively looking for buyers,” she said.

More on Gama.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick’s told Reuters that global economic gloom means console-makers should get their machines below $199 to see “mass” results.

“The price on platforms today has still not gotten down to mass-market price points and I think when you’re in the economic circumstances that the world has found itself in, there really is a difference between a $199 game system and a $299 game system,” he said.

Kotick added that he didn’t expect such a move, presumably talking primarily about PS3.

The exec also said that further sales success could also be achieved regionally.

“We’re just scratching the surface of opportunity as a publisher in Europe. There’s a lot more that we can do,” he said.

“In China and Korea, Blizzard has had great success but Activision products have not really had any success there.”

Lots more through there.

The Asian version of From Software’s Ninja Blade’s been released, says Siliconera, and it’s region-free. And in English.

You should, therefore, buy it. Don’t think. Thinking won’t get you anywhere. Buying Ninja Blade will.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Need for Speed World Online, one of a trio of newly announced games from the EA fanchise, is to enter technical testing in Taiwan and Hong Kong in March.

The free-roaming, free-to-play effort has no solid release date as yet other than 2009.

Press release after the break.

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Siliconera reports that SCEA (Asia) is releasing “Radiant Red” and “Vibrant Blue” PSPs.

The new models will cost $1,380 Hong Kong Dollars (approx. €130) and will almost definitely never ever leave Eastern shores so you can look,. but you can’t touch.

Bit more through the link.

Thanks, Kotaku.

By Mike Bowden

If, as planned, Lord of the Rings Online can successfully launch in China next year, the game is likely to become only the second truly successful western MMO released in Asia, the game’s dev lead Jeff Steefel has told VG247.

“I would argue that if we could successfully launch LotRO in China, we will probably be the second western game to be viably successful in Asia,” he said.

“It’s taken a while for them to get used to our games and for us to learn a little bit more about what they like to do.”

Steefel said that LotRO won’t launch until 2009 in China as it’s taken time to work with local partners to prepare the game for release in the country.

“I think it’s like anything else: everybody’s going to be rushing to do it,” he said. “The people that have been working on it and planning it for a long time are much more likely to succeed.

“I don’t think Asia’s a place where you can just suddenly decide that you want to be there.”

The first western title to crack the MMO market in the East is, obviously, World of Warcraft. Steefel made no bones about how significant WoW’s Chinese launch was to the Blizzard game hitting its current 11 million subs level.

“I think WoW’s success in Asia has validated it for western markets in theory… If you look at World of Warcraft and the way their subscription numbers have grown, a significant, if not a majority portion of that has come from the East,” he said.

“That’s where a big part of the global gaming market is and it’s been that way for a long time, but we’re only just now figuring how western games can begin to tap into that market.”

Lord of the Rings Online’s Mines of Moria expansion releases in the US and Europe today.

Bit slow on this, sorry. HanbitSoft – the South Korean company that now owns the rights to Hellgate: London – has confirmed that there’s new content in the pipe for the troubled action-RPG-MMO.

“Since acquiring the intellectual property rights, HanbitSoft Inc., the publisher and distributor of Hellgate: London in Asia, has concentrated on the development of Hellgate: London, and has received many inquiries regarding new updates,” the game’s product manager wrote on his blog.

“Our US development studio is currently working on an update that is to surpass The Abyss Chronicles. This game will be available through our web site. We thank you once again for showing your interest and ask for your continuous support for Hellgate: London, as we hope to bring good news shortly. In the meantime, we will continue developing the world’s best game!”

The game caught on nicely in Asia, despite original creator Flagship biting the bullet earlier this year.

EA Asia boss Jon Niermann has admitted that revenue for the publisher in the region is lower than target, but has pointed to a heavy release schedule of online game to boost funds.

“It’s nowhere where it needs to be. We need to get that growth significantly higher,” Niermann told the AP.

Asian revenues account for 6 percent of EA’s overall tally, the exec said.

Niermann said EA hopes to increase its market share in Asia by launching more online games, with 12 editions of different games expected to roll out this year.

EA has already launched online versions of FIFA, NBA Street and WAR in the region, with Battlefield Heroes to follow. The online version of Need for Speed, which was developed in Singapore, will launch next year.

More through the link.

Star Online is reporting that PlayStation 3 will launch in Malaysia this Saturday, September 20

Should you be Malaysian and want to get involved, the machines will be available from 11.30am at the 1Utama shopping centre in Petaling Jaya (just keep going after you pass the church on the right).

So there you go.

Thanks Kotaku.

Namco’s bought 34 percent of Atari’s European and Asian sales network for €30 million.

Between June 31, 2012 to June 20, 2013, Namco will also have the option to buy the remaining 66 percent from Infogrames.

“I am delighted that this transaction strengthens our outstanding partnership with Namco Bandai, one of the industry’s greatest creators and publishers of video games, and is a significant development in Infogrames’ reinvention,” said Infogrames boss David Gardner.

“The agreement will give Infogrames a guaranteed and strengthened product portfolio and provide us additional means to invest in new product development for packaged and online markets.”

Sony’s put out a press release saying Home will release in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan in “fall 2008″. There’s going to be a closed beta in “mid-September,” apparently.

Full thing after the drop. Thanks, Kotaku.

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According to this GI story, Crytek boss Cevat Yerli’s been confirmed as a keynote speaker at Games Convention Asia Conference this year.

“The technology available today is light years ahead of what was generally available just five years ago,” he said. “Add those advancements to increasing technical expertise as we learn more about graphically creating immersive worlds, and the conditions are right to have graphics play a major role in telling the story of a game.”

The event takes place in Singapore on September 18-20. More through the link.

According to Singapore’s official Warhammer Online website, Mythic’s long-delayed, highly anticipated fantasy MMO will be releasing in the country on September 23.

There’s no word on whether or not this will have any bearing on other regions, but we’ll check tomorrow. Good news to those watching the game, anyway.

Here. The Asia-heavy football MMO is working up to launch in the third-quarter of this year, and is slated for release in ten countries in the region.

Said a spokesperson: “The site will be further developed in the near future to incorporate a forum and more information about the game but in the meantime, players can register for an exclusive spot in the upcoming CBT over there!”

Go see.

According to this Thompson Financial story, quoting the Nikkei, both Nintendo and Sony are showing serious signs or moving their businesses into other areas of Asia outside Japan.

Apparently, 20 DS titles are to be release in South Korea this year, and Nintendo “has started providing technologies to a South Korean game developer, which has been working on titles including a simulation game that makes use of the touch screen on the Nintendo DS.”

Sony, on the other hand, “plans to work with Taiwanese authorities to train game creators starting in September,” and is also looking to expand PS3 operations in South Korea.

More through the link.

Super Smash Bros. World is reporting that custom stages in SSBB can now be shared between regions.

“It all comes down to where you place the stages on your SD card,” says the site. “There are specific directory structures for each region. So, if you’re from America, all your stages (downloaded or created) will go in the same directory. The same would apply to EU and Japanese users.”

Full details through the link.

By Mike Bowden