By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net
UPDATE: Editor’s note: Article edited to correct top-up rates.
LINEAGE II publisher Asian Media has reported a significant retention rate of players even after the massively multiplayer online role-playing game’s transition from open beta to commercial launch.
The game had its commercial launch on Jan. 22 at 11 a.m. Lineage II, which is a pay-to-play game (Editor’s note: Changed “play-to-play” to “pay-to-play.” Thanks to anomalous_underdog for pointing out the typo.), is distributed by Asian Media in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. Top-up cards are sold in denominations of P20 for 1 day, P50 for 30 three days, P100 for seven days, and P350 for 30 days.
In a telephone interview, Asian Media chief operating officer Ronald Allan Aquino said the retention rate is pegged at 65 percent, the majority of which was from the Philippines.
“We were expecting a lower retention rate but most players got engrossed with the gimmicks that we had during the launch,” Aquino said, referring to in-game item offerings for players who bought their top-up cards, as well as the doubling of experience points during the launch.
Aquino said they have distributed over P20 million worth of game cards, though the demand continues to be high. “We were getting calls from our distributors in the provinces that they were running out of cards, especially the P350 denominations.”
Aquino said they are expecting to start a year-long nationwide competition for Lineage II, which will culminate in a regional contest pitting Filipino players against their Singaporean and Malaysian counterparts.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
@DrunkenMonkey
True L2 has the graphics all in all “locally”. Make it even gw wasn’t internationally well accepted then, to satisfy your interest. Very well then. Have it your way. L2 rules. Let’s see if it can last even with Kamael patch comes out. Don’t you think I played it before I raised my personal opinion about it? And about my rig? I’m not gonna post coz there is no reason to brag bout my rig.
Read the other post dude, speaking for itself.
February 18th, 2008 at 12:21 am
@Digest
Did it ever occur to you that the masses of Philippine online gamers didn’t receive Guild Wars well? lol
Lineage 2 looks better than all the currently published local online games. I don’t know why you can’t see to agree. Perhaps the PCs in your shop aren’t souped up.
Lineage 2 might be 4 years old, but the graphics requirements to ENJOY the game at full settings are HIGH. Just FYI.
January 26th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
AMDG should have done their promotional capabilities with Guild Wars rather than L2. They are going backwards for simple discussion. L2 has no future for god’s sake, just look at the in-game graphics & most importantly the gameplay. Video clips are amazing but what about while playing the game, lol so lame. As a gamer & internet shop owner, I want to see satisfied gamers. I don’t want to here “naka 100 load ko ngaun kaya kelangan ko laruin game time ko”. I don’t want to just earn money from a crappy game. High ratings? lol L2 doesn’t even have a good rating. Why they don’t just focus on what they’ve done so far in the business, pushing games like GW. Huge content minus the monthly fee. And Guild Wars 2 is also coming for 2009 or 2010. I’m very dissapointed with amdg.
January 24th, 2008 at 1:16 am
Lineage 2 sucks, talk about major grindfest man. you’ll really finish all that time just tyring to get your character’s level up. L2 a success here in PH, ya right. I guess as much as a success as guild wars was Mr. Aquino
January 24th, 2008 at 12:48 am
yeah lol to the press release of that company rather play other mmo’s than this one dream on amdg