Level Up! Inc. and IP E-Game Ventures Inc. Signs Merger


Four days ago, I shouted about a “huge news in the Philippines Gaming industry coming this week“. This was the merging of Level Up! Inc. and IP E-Game Ventures, Inc., or as is known by the gaming community as Level Up! Philippines and e-Games Philippines.

Follow up:

Level Up! Inc. and IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. is merging their online game service businesses together making them the largest game service provider in the Philippines.

e-Games Philippines will be transferring their titles to Level Up! Philippines, in exchange, the company will receive Level Up! Inc. equity, a commercial interest in PlayWeb Games, Inc. (the game publisher and operator of all Level Up! Inc. game titles and services), and a cash consideration.

E-Games is the first listed online gaming company in the Philippines (PSE: EG) and is the only such listed company to date. It spearheaded the free-to-play game model and has over 15.9 million registered gamers and an average of 3.5 million active users per month. It is aggressively expanding its Internet café network through acquisitions (Netopia and CyBr cafés) and franchising and will incorporate other services such as food & beverage and remittance services.

Recently, e-Games has also acquired the rights to operate and sell advertisements for the NBA.com Philippine portal. It is currently developing game enhancement technologies between its Internet cafés and online games titles and is eager to extend these synergies with Level Up! Inc. online games.

IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. is a listed online gaming subsidiary of IP Ventures, Inc. (“IPVG”) and Level Up! Inc. (“LUI”). e-Games’ casual gaming unit is run by X-Play Online Games, Inc., a joint venture with GMA New Media, the digital arm of GMA Network. E-Games is today the largest Internet café operator in the Philippines, owning a 75% stake in Digital Paradise, Inc. (“Netopia”), and over 100 Internet café outlets Nationwide. Minority investors of the company are E-Store Exchange (an affiliate of GMA7) and the Philippine Star Group.

Level Up! Inc pioneered the online game business in the Philippines. Its parent company, Level Up! International Holdings, has a subsidiary in Brazil which likewise pioneered and leads the online game publishing business there. Aside from its presence in the Philippines and Brazil, LUIH also has a joint venture in the United States with an established Korean developer. And PlayWeb Games, Inc. is Level Up! Inc.’s game operator and publisher of all the company’s games in the Philippines.

The combined games line-up of the two companies that will be handled by PlayWeb Games, Inc. is:

  1. Allods Online (Level Up! Inc.)
  2. Audition Dance Battle (X-Play Online Games, Inc.) (if X-Play is included in the deal)
  3. Band Master (X-Play Online Games, Inc.) (if X-Play is included in the deal)
  4. Bounty Hounds Online (Level Up! Inc.)
  5. Cabal Online (IP E-Game Ventures, Inc.)
  6. Crazy Kart (Level Up! Inc.)
  7. Flyff (Level Up! Inc.)
  8. Grand Chase (Level Up! Inc.)
  9. K.O.S. (Level Up! Inc.)
  10. Level Up! Global Games (Level Up! Inc.)
  11. Perfect World (Level Up! Inc.)
  12. Point Blank (IP E-Game Ventures, Inc.)
  13. Ragnarok Online (Level Up! Inc.)
  14. RAN Online (IP E-Game Ventures, Inc.)
  15. RF Online (Level Up! Inc.)
  16. Rohan Online (Level Up! Inc.)

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