Level Up to unveil new games to Internet café partners

Philippine online gaming giant and pioneer Level Up! Inc. is set to introduce three new online games to its partner Internet cafés in a tradeshow this month. The launch will be held in Metro Manila and the cities of Cebu and Davao. Through the special tradeshow entitled "Elevation," invited Internet café owners will get a first-hand look at the new offerings and get full details of the promos and marketing plans from Level Up! management, led by CEO Jane Walker and ePLDT president Atty. Ray Espinosa.

"This special tradeshow will demonstrate our commitment to the continued success of our partner Internet cafés and that together we can aggressively conquer new business horizons this year," Walker said.

"Our continued dominance of the market rests heavily on our partnerships with Internet café owners and we continually explore ways to make their businesses more viable through aggressive marketing initiatives and specially designed trade programs," she added.

One such program is the Level Up! Café Connection (LUCC), a specially designed and dedicated portal and online community which gives even small café owners access to online training, exclusive promotions, free localized promotions and online booking of pre-paid game cards.

The highlight of the event, of course, would be the new games set to be featured in the tradeshow that includes the much-awaited Ragnarok 2 and the first China-developed online game, Perfect World.

Ragnarok 2 is an improvement of the highly popular Ragnarok which debuted in the Philippines in 2003. The massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Korean developer Gravity Co. Ltd. single-handedly made online gaming popular and revitalized the Internet café industry.

At its height, Philippine Ragnarok had a market share of 300,000 paying subscribers and 55,000 concurrent users. Unlike its predecessor, Ragnarok 2 will be fully three-dimensional with a richer storyline as well as new features in character development and community play.

"With Ragnarok 2, we hope to replicate the immense success enjoyed by its predecessor. The strong community that was built around Ragnarok was truly unprecedented and a lot of the original Ragnarok fans have been looking forward to playing this sequel. It’s safe to say the Ragnarok started it all," said Walker.

Meanwhile, a new online game developed in Beijing, Perfect World, is also scheduled to launch this year.

Perfect World is a cutting-edge fantasy massively multiplayer gaming experience, which offers deeper levels of avatar customization, a friend system that operates independently from the game. Players battle in land, sea and air to defend or conquer their piece of land to create their own perfect world.

Because of its many innovative features, Perfect World has already reaped several gaming awards for design and originality.

"To date, there is no online role-playing game in the market that can match Perfect World’s content and the level of player involvement that it offers," Walker said.

Finally, Level Up is also launching the payment gateway service for Silkroad Online.

Silk Road Online is based on historical events in the 8th century when China used a network of trade routes in Southern Asia known as the "Silk Road" to barter goods and services to their counterpart Islamic and European civilizations. This attention to historical detail, combined with magical and fantasy elements such as unique monsters and devastating spells or skills, gives unrivaled gaming experience found only in Silk Road Online.

Silkroad Online already has a strong following among local gamers and with its inclusion into Level Up’s portfolio, players may now purchase silk, its in-game currency, to buy much desired in-game items using Netgames cards.

Level Up is currently the only game publishing company that offers the widest range of content, catering to all demographics and market segments. Late last year, ePLDT, the information and communications technology arm of PLDT, acquired 60 percent of Level Up, resulting in a merger between Level Up and ePLDT’s own NetGames, which holds the franchise to Khan Online, Fly For Fun Online (Flyff), and PangYa. The merger effectively reinforces market leadership of the new company, which is still named Level Up.