I was surfing our cable TV for interesting news and informative shows when I came across ANC’s Business Nightly. This was a week ago (if I remember it correctly). Business Nightly is about well, business news and stock exchange. They have a guess guest that night, the CEO of IP e-Games Ventures, Inc. Mr. Enrique Gonzalez.
Follow up:
Here are the things Mr. Gonzalez said that interests me:
- IP e-Games will release a “Triple A” MMOG next year (2007)
- By 2007, they will introduce new online games that will be using the Hybrid model (as first introduced in the local market by SkyBlade, Tantra, and Priston Tale)
- e-Games Philippines targets to release 2 new online games every year
- Next year (2007), IP e-Games will be close to 50% revenue contribution to the IPVG Family, and thus will become IPVG’s largest revenue source. (gameshogun note: Currently, IPConverge and IPCCO have the highest revenue contribution to the family.)
- IPVG is helping iCafes to upgrade either through financing or low-cost support(?)
- IPVG plans on opening up their own iCafe chain – a mixture of Korean PC Bang and Station168 but cheaper, with the Filipinos in mind (gameshogun note: I may have misunderstood this)
- and that, 60% of Station168’s customer nationwide are Koreans, and this is changing fast
What Triple A MMOG? I don’t know. It could either be World of Warcraft, as IP e-Games is one of the biggest contender to the license for a South-East Asian server. But I doubt it myself considering how strict Blizzard is, but the WoW box/installer and prepaid card distribution is up for grabs. It could also be Granado Espada though it is still unclear as to whom Infocomm Asia Holdings gave the license for the Philippine service, IP e-Games or Level-Up? Recently, other gamers found out that the two said companies registered the domain names for the mmo – granadoespada.ph by Level-Up Inc.; granadoespada.com.ph with variations .net.ph and .org.ph all by IP e-Games/IPVG. Other games? Not sure.
A Hybrid model? It is a model wherein an online game have a monthly (or hourly) subscription for players to play and at the same time, the game offers an Item Shop. In other words, it is a mixture of both popular models – the Subscription-based model and the Virtual Asset Sales model.
Mr. Gonzalez also said something about Sabiclub, but I wasn’t able to write down the info except that its a Korean company. What I know however, is that IPVG is providing IDC (Internet Data Center) services to both Sabiclub and Station168, and if I’m not mistaken, IPVG also provides internet connection to them and other companies. IPVG’s IDC is called IPConverge. They recently opened up customer support for IPConverge called IPCCO.
Finally, e-Games Philippines might go regional soon. This is the path many local online game publishers are taking (after all, the local market is limited), and IPVG will, for sure, target it also. You can take my word for it ^_^
UPDATE 1/15/2007: Granado Espada Coming March 2007 by IP e-Games.