Asian Media creates online game division

INTERACTIVE entertainment company, Asian Media has unveiled a new a subsidiary that would serve as the company's online gaming brand. IAM Interactive Inc. intends to focus on the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia, which are the original markets for Asian Media's online gaming business. Asian Media also intends to expand to other businesses, which according to IAM Interactive President and CEO Fadzly Yusof, will be announced later. Yusof said the company aims to build the IAM Interactive brand through investments in promotions and advertising as well as community building for its players. "If there are any more investments for infrastructure, it will be upgrades of our game servers to provide the best experience to our players," Yusof said. He added that they are expecting increased capacity of gamers from the three countries they serve once they have launched their new games. Yusof is also confident that by targeting the three countries, they could extend their revenue stream. "We could be bigger than the big online gaming companies." Part of their operational overhaul is shifting from pay-to-play online gaming services to free-to-play, which they would start with the casual Japanese mecha-styled first person shooter game Exteel. He said the free-to-play model would be applied in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. "We've not fully maximized these markets so there's a lot of potential business from them," he added. Two other games are set to launch in the second to third quarter of 2009. Both would also be free-to-play. Incidentally, Yusof said Lineage II, developed by NCsoft, would remain a pay-to-play game. However, there are some plans to turn it into free-to-play in Russia where it is published. "If it works there, we could bring it here," he said. Asian Media signed a US$5.5 million distribution deal with NCsoft in 2007, which gave Asian Media the right to distribute the game in the three countries. Yusof said the free-to-play model is more appealing to gamers. He added that the current US recession would not likely have dire effects on the online gaming industry simply because players would use online gaming as a cheaper form of entertainment.