By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

LEVEL UP! Philippines CEO Jane Walker clarified Friday that the local game publisher is in a “neck and neck” battle with publicly listed IPVG Corp., a close rival, in the local gaming business.

Walker stressed that PLDT’s figures do not reflect its overseas, mobile game business, and advergaming, which when added up to the existing online game business, is “at par” with exceeds that of IPVG Corp.

“For the total Philippine operations, Level Up! Philippines is at par,” Walker said in an interview, stressing that Level Up!’s overseas and mobile game business are huge. Level Up! International, which is a privately held company, operates in Brazil and India.

Publicly listed firm IPVG Corp. said it has beaten the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) gaming company Level Up! in gaming revenues during the first quarter of 2008, according to IPVG Corp. CEO Enrique Gonzalez.

Gonzales reported that the company’s gaming business generated P124.60 million in gross revenues and profits of P57.13 million during the first quarter of 2008.

PLDT reported earlier that it has earned about P77 million in net revenues during the first quarter of 2008 from online games through subsidiary Level Up! Philippines. It also reported that the online gaming service revenues of Level Up! Philippines grew by 27 percent to P77 million.

Walker said that gross revenues of Level Up! Philippines, however, have reached more than P100 million, despite the closure of several online games in 2007 and this year.

Level Up! has also launched its mobile business recently.

Walker, however, said that Level Up! cannot release its overall revenues, including overseas and mobile gaming business. “I can only release what PLDT said,” she added.

Gonzalez said that IPVG gaming subsidiary IP e-Games has generated P92.92 million in net revenues during the first quarter, surpassing Level Up!’s figures.

He said gaming, which covers online and mobile gaming and some overseas licensing support services, has remained IPVG’s steady money earner because of the high margins it generates from online and mobile games.

The IPVG executive said “advergaming” or advertising generated from games has produced about P21 million in 2007.

Meanwhile, Walker said Level Up! Philippines’ advergaming revenues were not included in the reported net revenues. She explained that net revenues usually reflect the money they earn from selling pre-paid gaming cards to subscribers minus the discounts and taxes.

IPVG Corp. said its gaming subsidiary IP e-Games produced the biggest share of gaming revenues at P111.55 million, while recently acquired mobile content developer firm MegaMobile added P 1.39 million during the first quarter of this year.

IPVG Corp. also reported P11.66 million in “overseas” gaming revenues generated from “relicensing” gaming titles to Vietnam, Gonzalez said.

PUBLICLY listed firm IPVG Corp. said it has beaten the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.’s (PLDT) gaming company Level Up! in gaming revenues during the first quarter of 2008, its top executive stated Thursday.

IPVG Corp. CEO Enrique Gonzalez reported that the company’s gaming business generated P124.60 million in gross revenues and profits of P57.13 million during the first quarter of 2008.

PLDT reported earlier that it has earned about P77 million in net revenues during the first quarter of 2008 from online games through subsidiary Level Up! Philippines. It also reported that the online gaming service revenues of Level Up! Philippines grew by 27 percent to P77 million.

Level Up! Philippines CEO Jane Walker said that gross revenues of Level Up! Philippines, however, have reached more than P100 million, despite the closure of several online games in 2007 and this year.

Gonzalez said that IPVG gaming subsidiary IP E-Games has generated P92.92 million in net revenues during the first quarter, surpassing Level Up!’s figures.

He said gaming, which covers online and mobile gaming and some overseas licensing support services, has remained IPVG’s steady money earner because of the high margins it generates from online and mobile games.

The IPVG executive said “advergaming” or advertising generated from games has produced about P21 million in 2007.

Gaming subsidiary IP E-Games produced the biggest share of gaming revenues at P111.55 million, while recently acquired mobile content developer firm MegaMobile added P 1.39 million during the first quarter of this year.

IPVG Corp. also reported P11.66 million in “overseas” gaming revenues generated from “relicensing” gaming titles to Vietnam, added Gonzalez in an interview with reporters.

Gonzalez remained confident that IPVG would retain its leadership in the local market, which he expects to become more competitive this year with the entry of newer titles and players.

IPVG Corp. has already announced two new online games, Cabal Online and Pandora Saga, with two more titles coming this year, Gonzalez added.

All games of IP e-Games are free-to-play, meaning players can play games for free, but can opt to buy items to upgrade or arm characters.

Free-to-play online games will continue to dominate the local gaming market because “people still want to play for free,” the executive added.

TEAM Ninja of Manila won over a field of over 60 local teams, of five members each, to win the Philippine Qualifiers for the Asian DOTA Championships (ADC). The final match between Team Ninja and Team Corporation of Davao was held at Mineski Cyber Cafe along Taft Avenue.

The exciting match was a best-of-three competition. One round was won by each team, with the deciding third battle being won by Team Ninja. Team Corporation manager Ria Jose was present at Mineski though her team was assembled at, and was competing from, Davao.

Team Ninja’s win will now allow them to compete in the ADC Finals Qualifiers for the chance to gain one of two slots available in the final field of ten countries that would compete in the ADC Finals.

Incidentally, the venue of the qualifiers was the home of Team Mineski; one of eight teams with an assured slot in the finals. Should Team Ninja win one of the two available slots in the Asian Eliminations, the Philippines will have two teams in the finals. Team Mineski placed fourth in last year’s ADC.

Team Ninja is composed of Jeffrey “Fox” Fortunato, Tony “Ynot?” Mazinni, Vinni Carlo “ViNi” Caños, Regie “Rejz” Ragel, Joseph “DSR” Marco, Laurence Anthony “LA” Chua, Mark Vincent “Enteng” Co, and Jave Yu.

Team Corporation consists of Jay Arabia, Jester Ching, Duke Dalumpines, Chian Coronel, Subang Padilla, Paul Limlao and Maj Geneblazo. They are sponsored by DotAStrategy.com.

Defense of the Ancients is a mod of Warcraft III: Frozen Throne, the fantasy real-time strategy game from Blizzard. It involves team battles between five heroes to control a three-lane map.

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD singer Sam Concepcion is out to prove that the Philippines is indeed a goldmine of great musical talent, as he sings the song “Kung Fu Fighting” for the DreamWorks animated movie “Kung Fu Panda.”

At a press conference held at Annabel’s in Tomas Morato on May 13, Selina Gecolea, general manager of the Philippine office of United International Pictures, announced that DreamWorks gave Concepcion the green light to record the movie’s theme song.

“On every single screening of ‘Kung Fu Panda’ in the Philippines, Sam’s version of ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ will be played during the end credits of the film,” Gecolea said.

Here’s a photo of Gecolea with Concepcion.

“Kung Fu Panda,” which features the voices of big Hollywood celebrities like Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman, is about a big clumsy panda named Po, a kung fu fan who was chosen to fulfill an ancient prophecy alongside five legendary kung fu masters.

Here I am (left) posing with Po and INQUIRER.net multimedia reporter Erika Tapalla.

The original version of the theme song that will be used in the movie was recorded by US band Gnarls Barkley’s frontman CeeLo Green. An Asian version was also recorded by Korean pop star Rain, but UIP Philippines took the opportunity to nominate a local talent who can sing the song for the movie’s Philippine release.

Concepcion’s version of the song will be included on the limited edition Asian recording of the movie’s original soundtrack, giving him the international exposure he deserves. The song’s music video, directed by Marie Jamora, was shot in an authentic Chinese temple and will be released soon.

Sam, who played Troy in the local adaptation of Disney’s “High School Musical,” was the perfect pick not only because of his talent but also because of his wholesome image. Besides being a pop star, he is also currently a youth spokesperson for the Department of Education.

He said that everything happened so fast, from studying the song to submitting a demo, and before he knew it, he was recording the final version of the song.

“Everything just fell into place after that. It’s really great to be a part of this highly anticipated movie. It’s an honor to be the first local artist to sing the theme song. This is a first for me, in terms of doing something international,” he said.

The young star said it is hard to explain how happy and excited he is about the project, but at the same time he hopes that more local artists can make it internationally.

“Sana more doors will open for other Filipino artists. There is so much talent that needs to be recognized,” he said.

PINOYXBOX is one of the most prominent console-based gaming forums in the Philippines and is also one of the oldest, having been an offshoot of PinoyExchange. It boasts of 4,000 members, the majority of whom are from the Philippines though some based in other countries. It is pretty much a close-knit society, especially with the availability of Xbox Live, which allows Filipinos to play with or against each other and other nationalities.

Husband and wife Philip and Joanne Ortiz are among the moderators of PinoyXbox. They regularly check out the online activities of their members and get loads of information themselves from members. In one particular thread, there were members who stumbled upon Xbox 360 titles and equipment in a warehouse in Mandaluyong City. The two accidentally found an entire RockBand set that they bought for less than half the price in regular shops. Normally, a RockBand set, which consists of a guitar controller, drum set, microphone and the RockBand title, would sell at around P13,000.

Here’s the video I took of Philip and Joanne, who share some of their experiences as PinoyXbox moderators and Xbox 360 players.

“You get loads of information from the users and many of them share their own experiences with others. It’s a pretty tight group,” Philip said.

Xbox Live also enjoys a robust community of Filipino members, most of whom are from PinoyXbox. There are Filipino groups for Halo 3, NBA 2K8, and Call of Duty 3. Philip said there is already a group of Filipino “gangsters” playing Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox Live.

Offline, the group has a few eyeball parties where they also compete with each other in certain games. In their last EB in 2007, they were joined by members who lived abroad.

Philip also said the group is getting the attention of such companies as Microsoft Philippines and the organizers of the upcoming World Cyber Games Philippines.

Joanne for her part said that one of the advocacies of PinoyXbox is to have their members play only original titles.

“With the prevalence of pirated discs, there are opportunities for Xbox 360 owners to play pirated discs instead of original. There is little risk there but they don’t see the value of the people who work hard in making these games.”

Incidentally, here’s a video I took of Joanne her brother Rafael Formoso playing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock on the Xbox 360 on its highest difficulty setting. This, along with the interview with Philip and Joanne, was taken during the WCG Philippines press conference. The song title is “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Steve Ouimette.

Editor’s note: Videos taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.

DESPITE the Philippines not winning a single award in the World Cyber Games Grand Final in the last seven years, Samsung Electronics Philippines and Intel Philippines said they will continue supporting the local activities of the WCG, hoping that eventually, gaming tournaments in the country will become a respected spectator sport and produce professional gamers.

Intel Philippines country manager Ricky Banaag said the gaming community is heading toward that direction with gaming shops purchasing more powerful PCs that could run resource-intensive games. He added that many local tournaments are being conducted, indicating a growing community of semi-professional gamers.

“Our latest processors are aimed toward the gaming industry and we see that the demand is high. Hopefully more gamers will see themselves competing in a tournament level,” Banaag said.

For his part, Samsung Philippines general manager for Marketing Jerry Lacson said the company believes it takes a while to nurture professional-level gamers and that by continuing to back WCG Philippines, more companies will become interested in supporting Filipino gamers.

He also belied misconceptions that gaming has few beneficial purposes and said that the company is promoting responsible gaming.

Organized by eSports, WCG Philippines 2008 will include Counter-Strike 1.6, WarCraft III: Frozen Throne, Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath, and Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock tournaments.

The eight winners in these games will be sent to Cologne, Germany for the WCG 2008 Grand Final.

A contingent will also be sent to Singapore for the Asian Cyber Games that will include Defense of the Ancients, Need for Speed ProStreet, Guitar Hero III and Virtua Fighter 5 competitions.

The WCG Philippines preliminaries will start on May 17 and provincial eliminations will be held in Davao and Cebu.

THE RESURGENCE of interest of the online gaming community in a five-year-old game boosted revenues of local online game publisher Level Up! Philippines during the first quarter of 2008, a top executive told hackenslash.

Level Up! CEO Jane Walker confirmed in a telephone interview that the company earned about P77 million in net revenues during the first quarter of 2008.

In an earlier financial briefing, executives of ePLDT, the Internet subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), reported that the online gaming service revenues of Level Up! Philippines grew by 27 percent to P77 million.

Walker said gross revenues of Level Up! Philippines, however, have reached more than P100 million, despite the closure of several online games in 2007 and this year.

Level Up! Philippines pulled the plug on Rose Online in 2007, and Khan and PangYa this year. Khan was taken out after its developers stopped supporting the game. PangYa was seen to have not generated much interest from local players, said Walker. “[PangYa] was not a profitable game. We didn’t believe in the longevity of the game in the Philippines,” she said.

To date, Level Up! now runs five online games, namely Ragnarok, RF Online, Flyff, Freestyle, and Perfect World.

Walker said two more online games are set to be released this year. One will be a “high-traffic” game that will be announced in two weeks, she said.

Walker declined to comment on whether the local game publisher remains the leading company in the market. But she pointed out that Level Up! has seen about 50,000 stable concurrent users every month, and close to a million active users.

With the holding of the Ragnarok World Championship in the Philippines in October, Walker said the interest in the five-year-old game is at its highest again, following a slump.

“It also helped that we introduced free-to-play,” she added, referring to Ragnarok.

It is the first time that the Ragnarok World Championship is going to be held outside South Korea.

Asked about the prospects of online gaming in the country, Walker said the industry is still promising this year, given the good growth of revenues and number of users last year.

She said that for Level Up!, fierce competition will lead to more people playing online games.

COMIC books still appeal to many people, collectors and non-collectors alike. And if there’s one thing that everyone loves, it’s freebies and what more can make a comic book fan happier than free comics?

At the Free Comic Book Day celebration at Comic Odyssey in Robinsons Galleria, comic book enthusiasts lined up just to grab copies of the comic books. The event, which is an annual activity for Comic Odyssey, is aimed at reinvigorating the comic book collection community.

In an interview, Azrael Coladilla, co-organizer of the Free Comic Book Day celebration at Comic Odyssey, said dozens of titles were available during the event, including DC and Marvel comics.

“Comic Odyssey had stocks that also needed to be disposed so those were also given away as part of Free Comic Book Day,” he said.

Coladilla also said this was the first time their event was live-streamed through the Internet, enabling people abroad to watch.

Another highlight of the event was the presence of renowned Filipino comic book artists Gerry Alanguilan and Edgar Tadeo, who were there to sign autographs and create sketches of visitors. Alanguilan, in particular, was signing copies of Graphic Classics, which were given away to the first 200 people who attended the event. This issue of Graphic Classics features art and cover by Alanguilan.

Check out this video interview with Alanguilan.

Coladilla said the event will become a regular activity as long as there are comic book enthusiasts in the Philippines.

Editor’s note: Videos taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.

Video taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villafania.