Level Up! Games is the NO.1 game publisher in Philiphine. At this year's Chinajoy we had the opportunity to talk with Jake San Diego, the Marketing Director for Level Up! Games. we took this opportunity to make an brife interview with him. Enjoy it.
MMOsite: Are there some criteria for you to select a title to distribute? At the 2008 ChinaJoy, did you find any interested title you will like to distribute? What will be the next title you're planning to release in Philippine?
Jake San Diego: One basic criteria we have for selecting a game is the accessibility in terms of game specs ro . That's why we are very keen on going to China as any game that works in China will work in the Philippines because both countries would have the same internet infrastructure.
We definitely saw a lot of interesting titles there; our team of 5 people from our content group went to all the booths and tried out all the games during the convention's first 2 days. However, we can't say which titles we will be testing further when we get back home...for obvious reasons.
The next title we're launching in OBT is actually a game made by Shanda (SNDA) of China, it's Crazy Kart. We recently launched it's official site and I hope all you guys visit it, it's pretty cool (www.crazykart.ph). Our closed beta period is coming to an end this month and we'll announce in the site when the OBT launch is in the next few days.
MMOsite: I noticed that most of your games are cute style MMOs such as Ragnarok zeny, Rose and FlyFF. How do you describe the Philippine players?Do you think that Philippine players have a predilection for cute games?
Jake San Diego: That is true. With ro zeny breaking through the mainstream and being accepted as part of pop culture, it definitely set the bar in terms of the art you would expect out of an online game. However, the past 2 years saw the growth in terms of popularity of games with the classic MMORPG style artwork. Games like RF Online and Perfect World displaying realistic character art now cater to the more hardcore, mature gamers.