Game firms seek alliances

Many online PC gaming companies are considering seeking collaborators across the Taiwan Strait in hopes of winning a bigger market share, as most popular games have been developed by South Korean companies.

"Like other local game developers, we are eager to develop our business strategies in China, including seeking partners to work with and producing games to put on the market," Albert Liu (劉柏園), CEO and chairman of Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (游戲橘子), said yesterday.

Gamania, which was established in 2002 to distribute the popular online PC game series Lineage (天堂), has stated that it hopes to produce enough of its own games so that these will account for half of its game releases in the next five years.

But such a task hasn't been easy, Liu said after launching a new game yesterday.

"It is really difficult and requires a huge investment. However, this is a must for us if we want to be a leading gaming company in Asia," Liu said.

"Although our presence in the market is still small compared to major Taiwanese companies, I believe we'll soon catch up once we finish our deployment," he said.

Gamania yesterday unveiled Heat Project (火線特戰隊), a first-person-shooter (FPS) game developed by a South Korean gaming company. Gamania modified this game by replacing the original setting with the National Palace Museum to in order to cater to local gamers. The next version of the game will use the Presidential Office as the setting for gunplay, Liu said.

Gamania yesterday started to charge gamers for use of its Lineage II.

The company reported pre-tax revenues of NT$40 million, or earnings per share of NT$0.25, for the year's first quarter, and has announced that it aims to achieve NT$2.01 billion in sales this year.

As the online PC gaming sector is booming in Taiwan and China, Gamania and its counterparts are speeding up to enter new markets by forging partnerships with Chinese companies.

China's online gaming market was worth 1.32 billion yuan last year, and is expected to grow to 2.17 billion yuan this year and 3.33 billion yuan next year, according to statistics provided by IDC, a research firm.

Chinesegamer International Corp (中華網龍), a subsidiary of the nation's largest PC game developer, Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技), on Thursday signed a contract with the Beijing-based Sanchen Group (三辰卡通企業集團), producer of the popular TV cartoon "Blue Cat" in China. Under the contract, Chinesegamer will use the Blue Cat as a main character in an educational online game for kids.

Shares of Gamania dropped NT$0.3, or 3.11 percent, to NT$22.20 on the Gretai Securities Market (櫃檯買賣中心).