New Online Games Portal, PlayPark, Launches in the Philippines
During a press meeting earlier this week held at Marco Polo, Ortigas, video game publisher Asiasoft announced the launch of PlayPark, a premier gaming portal for the Philippines.
PlayPark will be home to some of the most popular online games in the Philippines. It will feature Activison Blizzard’s latest Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) offering Heroes of the Storm, Japanese action Role-playing Game (RPG) Phantasy Star Online 2 and superhero Massively Multiplayer Online RPG DC Universe online, among others.
To add to their library of games, PlayPark will also feature Level Up! Games’ existing game library.
The launch event also saw the unveiling of new games to be added to PlayPark’s offerings. Sequels to popular online games, World in Audition (sequel to Dance Battle Audition), Cabal 2 (the first online game to be developed using the CryEngine 3 graphics engine) and Special Forces 2 were among the games showcased.
Jake N. San Diego, Play Park General Manager
At the sidelines of the event, eSports Inquirer had an exclusive interview with Jake San Diego, General Manager of PlayPark.
Asked why PlayPark and Level Up! shifted from box distribution for games to a strictly online distribution model, San Diego answered that the changing dynamics of the industry called for a new approach.
“Our group’s CEO have been using the traditional box distribution model for more than a decade. They have been long-time partners of Electronic Arts (a triple-A game developer) and Blizzard,” San Diego shared. “Eventually, they surveyed the landscape and found that the online model was very interesting. It made games more accessible, especially in Asia.”
From there, they decided to speak to different game developers, particularly in Korea. “The rest, as they say, is history,” he added.
With credit card penetration below 5% in the Philippines, eSports Inquirer asked San Diego if the country’s gaming population was ready for more games with microtransaction models.
“As one of our value added transactions for our partner developers, we will distribute game cards,” San Diego answered. “These game cards are more recognizable and familiar to Philippine gamers so we believe this can bridge the gap.”
Formerly known as Playweb Games, Inc., Playpark, Inc. is the publisher and operator of Level Up! and PlayPark in the Philippines. PlayPark is owned by the Asiasoft Corporation Public Company Limited. A leading regional online games publisher, Asiasoft owns video game rights in the Southeast Asian market.
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