December 2007 Archives

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net INTEL PHILIPPINES and the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) are in discussions for a nationwide independent game development contest targeted at Filipino budding game developers. GDAP will work with Intel through a current partnership with the Creative Media and Film Society of the Philippines (CreaM), which is already conducting several digital art development activities with Intel, the latest of which is a workshop on creating machinima, or movie-like videos using spliced video game animation. In a presentation, Intel Philippines country manager Ricky Banaag said their partnership with GDAP started as they realized there is innate Filipino interest in creating video games. “We’re in a unique position to have them [game developers] not just as players but as creators for these games.” Banaag said the basic guideline for the competition is that a team of three players must build an entire game within 72 hours or three days. Intel will be providing its latest Core 2 Quad-enabled PCs to be used by the contestants to build their game. In a separate interview, GDAP president Gabby Dizon said the details of the competition are being finalized. Dizon said the game is intended to encourage young programmers and visual artists to create original video games.

By Alex Vilafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net HERE are more words of wisdom from members of the Philippine gaming industry's Who's Who. Read Part 1 if you haven't checked it out yet. Leo Magno, INQUIRER.net executive editor and 'Father of hackenslash' Ups: Competition is becoming tighter than ever, leading to more choices in the online and console gaming spaces. The gaming industry is now being seen as serious business, and investors are pouring in. On the media front, more coverage is being given the gaming industry, an indication that yes, there is a market for gaming information and that yes, journalists in the country are starting to cover the emerging "gaming beat." Downs: After the much-ballyhooed release of next-generation consoles, not a lot of good games were released in 2007. Same is true with online games. Some of the games released this year still hinge on enriching your character's local currency warchest to gain power instead of customizing your character for it to become unique. I know real-world scenarios are being simulated here, where wealth equals power, but we need a fresh idea from online game publishers. Prospects for 2008: Online, it's going to be tight. The big players might end up seeing themselves switching from the top position to number 2 or 3, then back again to the top, as competition continues to heat up and telecommunications infrastructure chug along, limiting the number of potential gamers and forcing the major players to compete for the same small pie. Consoles: No end to piracy in sight; Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony still won't take the Philippine market seriously as modified devices continue to proliferate; the gray market will still be the primary distributor of consoles in he Philippines. Mobile, cell phones will still be a viable platform for casual games, but more mobile gaming devices will be seen in the country for longer, more elaborate and "serious" games; let's face it -- Filipinos use the phone to text, not to play games for an extended period. Christmas Wishlist: For the industry: More outsourced gaming projects to the Philippines, or more investors to showcase Filipino game developers' talents, which hopefully would lead to more prominent acknowledgment of the Filipino developers in the final end-products. For consoles: More killer games that would make good use of the Nintendo Wii's unique controller; more revolutionary gaming ideas from other console makers that would focus on gameplay and game experience rather than processing and graphics power; more seamless integration of handheld-console games; a killer game that would allow you to continue your game from console or PC (offline) then bring the character online then to the mobile device, and all your XPs would still pile up. Ed Geronia, editor in chief of T3 magazine Ups: Great games for Xbox 360, Wii and PC. New lower priced PS3 SKU. Non-gamers getting into gaming because of the Wii's increasing mass appeal. Downs: Lukewarm PS3 releases. Heavy upgrades required for new DX10 games. Prospects for 2008: Hopefully HD gaming gains popularity as the prices of TV sets and consoles go down. Christmas Wishlist: Complete Rock Band set (All the instruments and game), Logitech G25 wheel, Dual Shock 3 controller, 37-inch Sharp Aquos LCD TV, Hannspree New York 19-inch, WXGA monitor, Nvidia 8800 GTX video card, Pioneer HTP 330 home theater system, "Planet Earth -- The Complete BBC Series" (Blu-ray), "Blade Runner" (5 Disc Ultimate Collectors Edition, Blu-ray), Mass Effect Limited Edition Set, Halo 3 Legendary Edition. Gabby Dizon, President of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines Ups: Our successful participation in Games Convention Asia Singapore, seeing the game we worked on released to the public. Downs: Delays for some much-anticipated projects. (Hopefully, you'll see them in 2008!) Prospects for 2008: Bigger and better recognized Philippine game industry. We are looking forward to attending GDC 2008 in San Francisco next year to show people what Filipino game developers can do. Christmas Wishlist: iPod Touch is the only gadget I'm drooling for this Christmas! Ranier Umali, Virtual Titania Amusement Software (VITAS) president Ups: We believe that the game industry in general will still have a modest growth for 2008. Many Philippine game development companies are very active in promoting their services in terms of outsourcing. And to some extent some are making IP games. As far as we are concerned we are very, very positive that we will have a very rewarding year for us considering that we have finished our online game and with the knowledge and experience gained we will be able to make better games and finish them much faster. Downs: Although there might be a modest growth in game industry the problem that we can see is that many Internet cafes will be disenfranchised considering that most online games coming from South Korea require computers with high specs. It is no joke to upgrade a computer at this time. Doing business is very hard and it is prudent not to increase overheads. Prospects for 2008: As we have said, we foresee a modest growth in the online gaming business. Many publishers will still be eager to publish new and exciting online games. However, we foresee an increase in casual games compared to MMORPGs. Christmas Wishlist: We wish that there will be more game development companies to be established so that in the future the Philippines will be a force to reckon with.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net USUALLY, December means reflecting over the things that have happened in the last 11 months, remembering the good things and trying to forget the bad things. Gaming is no exception and this year has seen the most active movement in the industry since the first online gaming company opened shop three years ago. Some of the Who's Who of the Philippine gaming scene were asked to assess 2007 and share their prospects for 2008, while also spilling the beans on what they would like to have this Christmas. Paraluman Cruz, Anino Games producer Ups: GDC! I went to the 2007 Game Developers Conference with other Philippine delegates. Attending such a big event and being able to show other companies around the world that the Philippines makes games was a huge thrill for me. Downs: None at the moment Prospects for 2008: GDC 2008 -- I’m going again! Anino will be releasing some games next year -- I’m looking forward to that too. Christmas wishlist: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a PC good enough to run Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, an upgraded Internet connection good enough to play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare online. See a pattern here? ;) Steve Tsao, IP-eGames president Ups: The industry as a whole has shown tremendous success this year. We are certainly happy with our progress and achievements this year and we are also happy to see that our competitors have gained a lot of success this year as well. So collectively, the industry has really grown by leaps and bounds this year, 2007. Downs: I think we still continue to see a lack of attention given to the Philippine market by some of the developers worldwide, and we hope to change that. Also, the perception of the industry in general is unfairly negative and that this is something we also work to correct in 2007 and hope to do more in 2008. Prospects for 2008: We only hope that the industry continues to grow the way it has shown this year and the previous year. We are looking forward to working closely with more content and development partners to bring the best content to the market to the Philippines. And we look forward to working closer with various organizations. This is an industry that we can be proud of and gain great benefits from more reading and writing, more computer usage, more internet usage, more investments into the country, more attention to the country Christmas wishlist: We hope that our gamers have a Merry Christmas, have a Prosperous New Year in 2008. We hope that our employees and their families have a happy holidays and we want to bring better, new content to the Philippines in 2008 and beyond. And an iPhone. Mitch Padua, head of Amped Games Ups: WarRock enters the Philippine market as the first massively online tactical shooter. With DSL and computer hardware prices going down, the emergence of new games into the market clearly shows that the gaming industry as a whole is growing. Advergaming begins to take steam as marketers experiment on emerging channels and realize that the Net Generation consumes entertainment in a different way as they shift their preference to interactive media as opposed to broadcast media. Support from universities, as Ateneo De Manila University plans a degree on game development. The Philippines becoming a destination for game development outsourcing as local game developers showcase their talents. Downs: City ordinances hampering the growth of the gaming industry. [Internet] infrastructure still far behind our neighboring countries. National Broadband Network cancellation. Prospects for 2008: Advergaming starts to catch on and Ad spend on the Internet will grow as more brands become aware that their target market is shifting its time from traditional entertainment to an interactive one. Social networking sites, online games, mobile VAS, e-commerce sites become a blur as virtual worlds show real money. Network infrastructure further improves with lower costs bringing in richer content. Emergence of cybertournaments/professional gamers start gaining recognition as more Philippine players participate in international/nationwide tournaments. Prepaid broadband services. Christmas wishlist: Free wifi. Fiber to the home (100MBps) -- faster to download a 500MB file than to burn a CD at P999. 24-hour gaming channel. HDTV/IPTV broadcast. Government recognition, support and incentives for the gaming industry. Joan Guevarra, independent video game reviewer Ups: 2007 is the year of the Nintendo Wii! Hurray for console gaming! A lot of good online casual games also came out which is a perfect lure for the mainstream public. Downs: Where's the Xbox 360??? There's not even a peep from Microsoft here in the Philippines. Prospects for 2008: The next-gen console sales will continue to be off the charts with the Nintendo Wii leading the pack. Portable games also take up a big chunk of the gaming industry's global increase and Nintendo DS Lite sales will continue to grow strong. I think while the Wii will have more hardware sales, PS3 will make a killing with software sales. It's obvious I'm a Nintendo maniac at this point. Christmas wishlist: Nintendo Wii with all the trimmings! I'd love to get my hands on a Bleach game which is a non-fighting game for a change -- it'd be great to kick serious hollow and arrancar butt with bankai! Nobuhiro Fujii, PixelStream president Ups: Got Nintendo DS project. Downs: Nothing Prospects for 2008/Christmas wishlist: Get more Nintendo DS games and another project for console games. Get more projects from foreign countries not only from US and Japan. Increase staff; programmers from five to eight, 3D artists 15 to 20, and 2D artists four to five. Niel Dagondon, founder of Anino Games Ups: Game development in the Philippines is growing. Universities are introducing or will introduce courses in game development in the future. Downs: Not much original (commercial) Pinoy games out there. We are still too focused on outsourcing game work. Local game developers going to work in other countries. Prospects for 2008: Industry growth. Game development studios adding more capabilities (such as doing console work) Christmas wishlist: Unreal Engine. X360 dev kits. More talented game developers applying to our company. Cute female game programmers applying to our company. And world peace. Ranulf Goss, Philippine coordinator for International Game Developers Association Ups: GDAP participation at GCA event last September, UGotGame X3m Xpo event, Philippine presence in IGDA Leadership Forum, Expansion of Philippine game development companies Downs: Still no push for locally developed MMO games Prospects for 2008: New arcade games, advergaming and Philippine handheld platform development will grow. Game development courses will become available. Christmas wishlist: For devices, it would be a PS3, a new LCD TV, and an Alienware gaming laptop. Cheaper original games and cheaper electricity wouldn’t hurt either. Jane Walker, Level Up! Inc. CEO Ups: Perfect World performance: number one game in more than 8,000 cafes. Four Level Up! titles in the top five games in the Philippines. Pioneering new advancements like LU! Mobile. Winning the Web Awards and ending 2007 with a big bang! Downs: When we postponed the Ragnarok 2 launch. But it’s all for the best. Prospects for 2008: We have a great lineup of new content and more pioneering efforts next year and our existing games are stronger than ever. It will be a great year for Level Up! Christmas wishlist: Nothing but the best for the entire Level Up! Family. I love the LU! guys for their dedication, passion, sense of humor, exuberance and warmth. I could go on and on. I have the best team. For myself, more tennis. Ben Colayco, Level Up! International gameboss Ups: Finishing the year strong, and maintaining our leadership position. Downs: Not being able to spend more time in Manila. Prospects for 2008: Very bright. Level Up! Philippines is pumped up, the whole crew is tighter than ever. Bring it on, 2008! Christmas wishlist: A new rig so I can play Crysis at maximum detail, an extra black wireless controller for my Xbox 360, Rockband, and finally more free time to play all these d@mn games!

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net THE ASIAN Gaming Journalists Association Workshop at Club Manila East in Taytay, Rizal set the stage for encouraging further development of the country's gaming industry and more media coverage on the gaming scene in the Philippines. It also opened more opportunities for collaboration between the local gaming media and the video game industry in the Philippines. The two-day event is the first workshop of AGJA since it was founded as a way to strengthen and legitimize video game industry coverage across Asia. AGJA founding president and INQUIRER.net multimedia editor Joey Alarilla started the ball rolling with a talk on the purpose of the workshop, which is to gather the country’s video game journalists and come up with methods that would help improve the quality of writing and uphold journalistic standards in covering the gaming scene. Meanwhile, Ed Geronia, currently the editor in chief of T3 Magazine, narrated his experiences as the then editor in chief of the first Philippine multi-platform gaming magazine GamesMaster Philippines. He mentioned some of the difficulties in convincing the market about gaming even before the first online games arrived in the country. INQUIRER.net technology reporter Erwin Oliva talked about the things to keep in mind when writing gaming industry news. He also tackled the challenges of drawing the line in friendly relationships with the video game vendors and the media when it comes to reviews and industry news. Cebu Daily News gaming columnist Badong Reyes discussed how to review games, giving an overview on the structure of a game review, as well as the different challenges depending on genre, platform, and availability of titles. Two of the biggest players in the Philippine online gaming industry were also present at the workshop, Level Up! Inc. and IP e-Games. Level Up! gameboss Ben Colayco discussed “advergaming” or advertising on a video game. Colayco said traditional advertising has gradually engaged the huge niche market among the community of gamers. Advergaming will also create new businesses that will benefit traditional advertisers and publishers who will reach more people. For his part, IP e-Games president Steve Tsao talked about the growth of the gaming industry in the Philippines and throughout Asia. He stressed that Asia will remain a huge massively multiplayer online gaming market, which will encourage more opportunities not just for the publishers and gamers but also for other businesses. Other topics discussed in the event were the creation of a code of ethics that will set the standards in covering the gaming industry, a video game library where members of the group can lend and borrow titles for review, and the launch of forums on different gaming industry topics. AGJA member and Manila Times editor Jing Garcia of the Manila Times raffled off two car dioramas and an Asus motherboard courtesy of his Tech Times section. Here's Jing with winners Ed... Badong... ...and Lio Mangubat of K-Zone. Meanwhile, INQUIRER.net/hackenslash raffled off a Nintendo DS Lite, which Ed won, and a Sony PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite, which was won by Badong. The prizes came as a pleasant surprise to AGJA members, who were not told that a raffle would be held when they were invited to the event. The first AGJA workshop was sponsored by INQUIRER.net/hackenslash, IP e-Games and Level-Up! With a report from Joey Alarilla, INQUIRER.net Editor's note: Photos by Alex Villafania

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net "THE KEY industry that can benefit from advergaming is basically everything." This was the statement of Level Up! gameboss Ben Colayco, who spoke during the recently held Asian Gaming Journalists Association Workshop in Taytay, Rizal. Colayco’s presentation centered on a fairly new concept called “advergaming” wherein product advertising is done within a video game. However, Colayco went beyond in-game advertising and said traditional consumer product manufacturers are willing to create cross-deals to promote the games on their own. “That’s because the [player] traffic that comes from online games can be drawn toward the consumer products,” Colayco said, adding that online game player traffic is easier to measure and can be translated to real revenues for the consumer product. Colayco identified several of their early advergaming partners where they experienced huge positive reception from the gamer market. Among their partners are a fast food company, a soda beverage firm and a popular men’s magazine. The deals that Level Up! made through these companies provided measurable traffic for both the games that Level Up! publishes as well as for the consumer brand products. In one instance, Level Up! amassed over 120,000 redemptions of game time for Ragnarok Online and Freestyle. The redemption items were the cans with special designs from the soda beverage firm. Colayco added that brand recall is strengthened in the game when players are given tasks to complete to form a specific real-world product. In some cases “consuming” the products in the game actually increases the player's XP or experience points or HP or health points. Eventually, the players themselves would also consume the real-world product as they would in the game. On the other hand, Colayco said the advergaming business is neither easily sellable to traditional advertisers, nor is it easily executable. The main issue is that traditional advertising has a more massive market effect compared to advergaming where products have to be carefully chosen to be represented in the game. “We have to select the type of advertising on each game. You don’t want to upset players,” Colayco said. Instead, both the game publisher and the advertiser would be able to cut deals that would maximize their market potential, such as bundled services. “What we’re doing now is getting advertisers excited with the game industry,” Colayco said. The first AGJA workshop was sponsored by INQUIRER.net/hackenslash, IP e-Games and Level Up! Inc. Editor's note: Photo by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania

By Erwin Oliva INQUIRER.net UPDATE: Editor's note: Added photo. ONLINE game publisher IP e-Games still sees growth in the online gaming market in the Philippines next year. But at the same time, the company expects more consolidation in 2008. “There's potential for the market to grow double or triple,” Steve Tsao, IP e-Games president, who also stressed that companies that are not making enough money will eventually need to consolidate with other firms. IP e-Games is a subsidiary of publicly listed firm IPVG. Tsao was invited to talk during the first Asian Gaming Journalists Association workshop held in Taytay, Rizal, Saturday and Sunday. Citing industry figures, Tsao said that about 23 to 25 percent of the Internet user base in the Philippines is now playing online games. He stressed that the number could become higher next year since growth is now coming from outside Metro Manila and other key cities in the country. For IP e-Games, Tsao said it has about 5.5 million subscribers to its online games and about 2.5 million active users. It currently has more than 50,000 concurrent users for its various online games in the Philippines. In 2007, most of the games that were launched in the Philippines have become free-to-play, which means people could play games for free and pay only if they want to buy items and other in-game requirements to "level up" characters. Citing a Synovate Research done August 2007, most Filipino Internet users today get their access through Internet cafés, especially among the 15 to 29 year-old and non-working users who belong to the D and E economic classes, Tsao said. He said that the "willingness to pay for broadband Internet" has been evident in areas outside of Metro Manila and other key cities, but getting a decent Internet connection remains a challenge for consumers and even Internet shop owners. "Growth of the Internet shops should be encouraged," he said. Tsao stressed that the growth of online games will also depend a lot on more "compelling" content that would encourage more Filipinos to play games online. Casual online games are emerging as more popular than hardcore massively multiple online role playing games which require a lot of time to play. Tsao said IP e-Games' Audition, for one, has so far attracted about 8,000 concurrent users a month. IP e-Games is the Philippine publisher of RAN Online, O2 Jam, Audition, Supreme Destiny, Granado Espada, and soon, Hellgate: London. The first AGJA workshop was sponsored by INQUIRER.net/hackenslash, Level Up! Inc. and IP e-Games. Editor's note: Photo by INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net Editor's note: The article wrongly identified the Nvidia official as Mark Chen. The executive who gave the presentation was actually Davis Lin, Nvidia senior sales manager. hackenslash regrets the error. JUST shortly after processor and graphics card chip giants AMD and ATI released their Spider multimedia platform, competing graphics card company Nvidia has upped the ante by presenting their latest GeForce 8 series. Incidentally, Nvidia's Asia Pacific channel sales manager Mark Chen senior sales manager Davis Lin made direct comparisons between Nvidia’s graphics card products and those of ATI during their recent product presentation in Makati. In fact, Chen Lin even went as far as saying that AMD (which acquired ATI), is "fooling" the market, particularly with the use of Microsoft DirectX 10.1, an incremental Windows programming update. DirectX is used mainly by Microsoft Windows to run multimedia applications, particularly games. However, DirectX use caught on when Microsoft created the game console Xbox. ATI had earlier launched its graphics cards with DirectX 10.1 support, especially in its Radeon HD 3000 series. The products, which are part of AMD's Spider platform strategy, were presented to local media just recently. ATI's biggest competitor in the graphics card market is Nvidia. "There are no DirectX 10.1 applications yet," according to Chen Lin, who went on to make his point regarding the difference of using the current standard DirectX 10 and ATI's use of DirectX 10.1. PC games are perhaps the most notable users of DirectX and as such, the latest DirectX updates affect their performance. Chen Lin, on the other hand, said that there are no PC games that will be released with DirectX 10.1 as a requirement. He even listed some games and their publishers who claim they will not be coding their games in DirectX 10.1 until 2009, including Epic Games ("Unreal Tournament"), Crytek ("Crysis"), Relic Entertainment ("Company of Heroes"), and Ubisoft Motreal ("Far Cry 2"), among others. "Nvidia has already started the internal training of people so we could jump from DirectX 10 to DirectX 11," Chen Lin said. Regardless, Chen Lin went straight to talking about the new performance capabilities of their GeForce 8 graphics cards. In some demonstrations, he showcased the GeForce cards' ability to reproduce depth of field wherein objects from a distance appear blurred while objects near the camera are clearer; smoke and fog rendering; soft particle movement; motion blur; and high definition lighting. The company released the latest GeForce 8 graphics cards, particularly the 8600 GT, the 8800 GT and the 8800 Ultra, all of which use the latest PCI Express motherboard slot. The 8600 GT has a core clock speed of 540 megahertz and 256 megabytes of memory. The 8800 GT has a 600 MHz core clock speed with 512 MB of memory. The GeForce 8800 Ultra is the company's top-of-the-line graphics card, which has a 612 MHz core clock speed and 768 MB of memory. These graphics cards are also capable of HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) output for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD capable optical drives.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net JAMES RONALD LO, one of the major proponents of video game advertising in the Philippines, has set up a new firm called Indigo Entertainment that aims to bring the concept of "advergaming" offshore. Indigo Entertainment will focus mainly on developing web games using Flash, as well as mobile phone games. However, the company will also branch out to 2D/3D flash animation, graphic design, web and database development, and online viral marketing. Lo, whose previous stint was with advergaming firm Skyrocket, said he has offshore partners who helped build Indigo and would also serve as marketing arms to find projects for the company. Lo will serve as Indigo Entertainment's president and chief operating officer, leading 16 employees to work in a Makati City office. Hopefully, he said the company would have 18 employees by the end of the year. "We’ll go global and find projects wherever we find them but we’ll also accept local projects, including on advergaming, which is quickly catching up both in the Philippines and abroad," Lo said. Lo noted that among their first projects is developing interactive online community sites that play like massive multiplayer online game. The concept is similar to the social networking site for children Club Penguin. "We already have at least three such projects; two from abroad and one in the Philippines. The first one could be ready by the middle of 2008," Lo said. On the other hand, Lo said the company will still focus on developing original titles but will be mostly in web-based Flash games. Other original products would be a mini-series of Flash animation and a multiplayer game portal that features folk games such as patintero and tumbang preso.

By Alex Villafania, hackenslash Reporter INQUIRER.net TEAM Baguio Clan Uno (BC1), the Philippine representative to the WarRock World Championship finals in South Korea, took fourth place after a three-round loss against the Japanese team. BC1 narrowly lost against Poland in an earlier elimination match with a 4-3 scorecard. BC1 is composed Walter Mamaril, Aquilino Soyosa, John Paul Naputo and Dexter de Castro. Their fifth member was Edgardo Abiera Jr., originally from Team Ambush, who replaced BC1’s Melvin Bares due to passport problems. Poland's Team Hussars eventually took second place in the competition while the top spot was taken by the US team, AniMoSity. The event was documented by WarRock Philippines community manager John “Johnny Blaze” Nadal who coached BC1 in South Korea. His blog detailed most of the team's activities in South Korea. WarRock was one of the featured games in the Game&Game World Championship. It was held on Dec. 1 at the COEX Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Teams from the United States, Japan and Europe joined the competition. While South Korea fielded a team, it was in a different bracket. Amped Games publishes WarRock in the Philippines, as well as Tantra Online and GetAmped.

By Bertille Ossey-Woisard Agence France-Presse PARIS--The French and US companies behind the hugely popular video games World of Warcraft and Call of Duty announced Sunday that they are merging in an $18.9-billion dollar deal. French group Vivendi said it was linking up with US rival Activision to form the new world leader. The new entity, Activision Blizzard, will be "the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher," with combined revenues of $3.8 billion in 2007, the two said in a joint statement. Vivendi will put its Vivendi Games subsidiary, based in Irvine, California, and $1.8 billion into the new enterprise. It will have an initial 52-percent stake in the new concern which will gradually increase to 68 percent. The statement valued the transaction at $18.9 billion. Vivendi group chairman Jean-Bernard Levy said Activision Blizzard would be "a worldwide leader in a high growth industry." "This alliance is a major step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertainment sector," he declared in the statement. "By combining leaders in mass market entertainment and subscription-based online games, Activision Blizzard will be the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry," said Activision chairman Robert Kotick. He higlighted the increased access that his firm would get to the "rapidly growing Asian markets" including China and South Korea. Kotick will stay on Activision Blizzard's president and chief executive and the new company's stock will be quoted in New York. Vivendi Games, which has 4,000 employees, is already an international market leader through its World of Warcraft, an online multiplayer subscription game, developed by its Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary, which has an estimated 9.3 million players. It claims that Blizzard's World of Warcraft, Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series are four of the top five best-selling personal computer titles of all time. The statement said Vivendi Games has projected 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion "with operating margins of over 40 percent and approximately $520 million of operating profit." Activision, based in Santa Monica, California, was set up in 1979 and has become established in North America and Europe with games such as Call of Duty, the Tony Hawk skateboard series, Guitar Hero, Spider-Man, James Bond, Shrek, X-Men and Transformers. It now has 2,000 employees worldwide and posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year to the end of March. "Activision has been very focused on margin expansion and this transaction will meaningfully increase our overall operating margins as we expand our franchises online and in new geographies," said Kotick. The deal has been approved by the Vivendi and Activision boards but needs approval from Activision shareholders. The statement said it should be completed in the first half of 2008. Vivendi will spend $1.7 billion on new Activision stock. After the merger closes, the new company will offer to buy back up to $4 billion dollars in shares. Under the second tender offer, Vivendi will increase its stake to 68 percent.