MANILA, Philippines — Amid a flurry of disappointed fans and players of the online game Tantra, game distributor Amped announced that they will continue to support the first Tantra while preparing to launch Tantra II.

The company also announced that it is merging four game servers into two. The Manas and Kriya servers will be merged, while the Samadi and Diyana servers will become one.

The company said that support for Tantra I will include new patches, new in-game weapons and armor and future gaming events.

“Despite all of the problems, rumors, and critics that Tantra is facing. The game still manages to survive and compete in the business. This is due to the loyal players that support Tantra in its journey to success,” the company said in an official statement posted on its website.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — Mobile games distributor MegaMobile is planning to introduce more Java-based mobile games, both licensed and locally developed, as it expands its product portfolio.

MegaMobile President Manny Fernando said that apart from their existing titles, the company will also introduce homegrown games.

He did not describe what these games are but said that plans are being finalized with their partners.

“Expect that we will be seriously capitalizing on this growth segment,” Fernando said in an e-mail reply to queries from INQUIRER.net.

Fernando said mobile gaming is one of the biggest mobile business segments, next to mobile music.

He said all of the mobile service providers have gaming portals that have extensive library of titles.

MegaMobile was acquired by IPVG Corp in February this year, under a stock purchase agreement.

Currently, the company is providing six mobile games, all of which are related to the massively-multiplayer online games being offered by IPVG’s gaming division, e-Games.

Three of the mobile games are sub-adventures from RAN Online. These are Swordsman, Karuso’s Escape, and Ran Girls Jealousy.

The three other games are sub-adventures of Granado Espada Online, which are Girl Fight, Little Red Riding Elementalist and Musketeer’s Wrath.

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — The Game Development Association of the Philippines (GDAP) is holding costume play (cosplay) competition opened to participants portraying characters from any video game.

Characters can come from games of any gaming platform, including PC, PlayStation or Xbox, Nintendo platforms and handheld gaming devices.

Ranulf Goss, International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Philippine Chapter chairman, said the competition highlights gamers’ endearment to their favorite video game characters.

The cosplay competition is part of GDAP’s Game Craft, which also highlights a series of business sessions and classes for developers and artists during the entire BPO Summit.

For the past three years game development has been one of the latest highlights of the BPO Summit, largely due to a number of outsourced projects that local game development companies have been receiving.

GDAP has been promoting game development as one of the sunshine industries in the Philippines.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

MAKATI CITY, Philippines — Game distribution firm IP E-Games announced that it will become the local distributor of online game NosTale.

The company will also become the payment gateway for Philippine players, utilizing its top-up cards.

Korean company Entwell Co., Ltd. developed NosTale, which stands for The Tale of the Nomads of Silver Spirit.

Despite its cartoonish, kid-friendly design, NosTale is considered a massively-multiplayer online game instead of a casual game.

In an interview, Sonny Carlos, IP E-Games Product Manager for NosTale, said the game’s server will be hosted in Korea while E-Games will provide a payment service for players in the country.

Carlos said the game will target a younger generation of players.

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By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — It may sound like the fabled land of the Rohirrim in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Rohan Online, however, is not related to it but it does have the same elements of medieval fantasy.

Rohan Online is the latest massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that game publisher Level Up! Online is introducing in the Philippines.

The game is similar to most hack-and-slash online games and features six character classes, the Humans, Elves, Half Elves, Dhans, Dekans, Dark Elf.

There are also male and female models for each class. Each of the classes have unique roles and attributes, some are close quarter combatants, some are long range fighters, while others are more balanced types.

These character classes also own unique weapons and items. Some can wield two-handed weapons like the Human Knight. The Elf Archer for example can use bows more efficiently than the rest of the characters, while the Dhan Assasins can use stealth weapons to kill enemies quietly.

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