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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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