Category Archives: Asia

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

From the Major. Namco’s posted a demo of Tales of Vesperia, but only for the Asian and Indian Marketplaces.

The game is region free so grab it now, if you can.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Reuters story, EA expects revenue from online gaming in Asia to account for three-fifths of its business in the region within five years.

The figure compared to the 10-15 percent expected this year.

“This year, the online business for Asia is going to represent somewhere between 10-15 percent of our business,” said EA Asia head, Chris Thompson.

“I would see, five years from now, that the online portion of our business could be representing somewhere plus or minus around 60 pct of our business.”

More through the link.

EA’s just confirmed that Warhammer Online will hit Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia at the same time as America and Europe.

The region will also have its own dedicated server, based in Australia.

“Warhammer is a world-wide franchise with a strong following in Australia and New Zealand. By placing our own server down under and running customer service out of EA Mythic, we can ensure that when we launch WAR, Oceanic players will experience the same quality of game play and customer service as North American players,” said EA Mythic boss Mark Jacobs.

Press release after the link.

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According to this Bloomberg report, Microsoft has dropped the price of Xbox 360 in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

The price of a basic version will drop by 17 percent to NT$10,360 ($340) in Taiwan and by about 11 percent in Hong Kong effective today, Hsieh said. Prices will fall 5.1 percent to 369,000 won ($369) in Korea and by 20 percent to S$499 ($366) in Singapore, according to separate e-mailed statements.

Last month, Microsoft cut the price of the Xbox 360 in Europe for the at least the second time in a year to win customers from Sony and Nintendo. The basic Arcade console fell to 199.99 euros ($311.38) from 279.99 euros, and the model with a 20-gigabyte hard drive dropped 80 euros to 269.99 euros.

More through the link.

Take-Two announced a push into “high growth Asia Pacific markets” this afternoon, say that its hired Hubert Larenaudie – previously of EA and Vivendi – to spearhead the expansion.

Base in Singapore, Larenaudie will be henceforth known but his new and completely awesome job title, “President for Asia”.

“Many of Take-Two’s franchises, such as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Sid Meier’s Civilization, and BioShock are international hits, and already have attracted large and enthusiastic fan bases in markets such as Japan, South Korea and China,” said Larenaudie, presumably from some kind of nuke-proof 747.

“With the Company’s portfolio of leading brands, growing sports business, extraordinary creative talent and global appeal, I see exciting potential to build a significant Asia Pacific business for Take-Two, with a particular emphasis on the online game segment of the market.”

Press release after the link.

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We didn’t even know there was a FIFA Online 1. The game’s success in Korea has prompted a sequel – FIFA Online 2 – to be rolled out in 10 Asia Pacific countries in the third quarter this year, according to this. IAHGames is to handle the title locally for EA.

Go Peter. We knew Wales would conquer the world eventually.

Leipziger Messe’s confirmed that Games Convention Asia 2008 has been dated for September 18-20 in Singapore. The event will take place at the Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre.

More than 70,000 people turned up to last year’s event, which is billed as the only serious show in the region, which is expected to see market growth from $ 11.7 billion in 2006 to $18.8 billion in 2011.

The Messe also announced that it’s employed PR firm Red Dawn Communications to look after its press release interests in the Pacific region from now on.

Speaking to VG247, NCSoft Europe CEO Geoff Heath has confirmed that the company is planning to launch new titles in the City of Heroes franchise “in the next couple of years” and will bring Korean swords-and-sorcery MMO Aion: Tower of Eternity to Europe in “Q4 of this year.”

“We have some major plans for City of Heroes for the future,” he said. “Again, for this year we’re going to be doing regular updates, but there’s a lot of exciting stuff going on around City of Heroes, not for this year in terms of new releases, but certainly in the next couple of years.”

He added, talking of an Aion release date, “We’re being as brave as saying Q4 of this year. Within a month or two I’m sure we’ll firm the exact date up.”

Heath was talking on the back of strong full year financials, which showed near-static sales but good profit increase.

“They’re a solid set of results,” said Heath, adding, “For the UK and Europe, I think it’s good that the group made a good profit, and also we’re forecasting growing again this year. Europe is a healthy part of it these days.”

Heath also confirmed previous reports that NCSoft’s first PS3 MMO is to be shown this year.

“We’re going to be showing some stuff on PS3 later this year,” he said. We’re not quite ready to say what it is yet.”

Read the full transcription of our interview with Geoff after the link.

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Forgot to post this last night. There’s a massive sale on at Play Asia, with over 5,000 items discounted and a prize draw to win Japanese stuff. Go have a look. There’s bound to be something you’ll want to waste your money on.

Microsoft’s offering a new Xbox 360 pack for Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, to include a 20Gb console, two wireless controllers, a month’s Live sub and Halo 3. The bundle’s priced at S$699 (about £242) and is available now.