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Showing posts with label Electronic Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electronic Arts. Show all posts

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

GADGETS Magazine Editor John Nieves will head to Hong Kong at the end of the month to represent the Philippines in the first Intel Asia PC Gaming Showdown, which is a competition open to gaming journalists and amateur gamers.

Nieves will be facing off against game journalists from Thailand and Malaysia.

Nieves won the top prize in the Philippine leg of the competition, which pits gaming journalists in three games from Electronic Arts; Crysis, Need for Speed Pro Street and FIFA 2008.

In an interview, Nieves said he has already been practicing on FIFA 2008, the only game that he is not strongly familiar.

“Crysis plays much like most first-person shooters that I’ve played before so it’s easy to pick up and I’ve been playing the Need for Speed series since it came out. Soccer games are more difficult for me because I’m not much into sports games,” he said.

The grand winner of the Hong Kong finals will take home an high-end Alienware gaming PC powered by an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor while the second place winner will be awarded with a Creative Gigaworks S750 gaming speaker system.

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

THE mobile division of game development and publishing giant Electronic Arts (EA) is already looking to hire a person in the Philippines as part of the company’s expansion in the Southeast Asian region.

EA Mobile has offices in China, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa while its current Southeast Asian office is in Singapore.

The Philippines will become its second office in the region, the company said.

EA Games Sales and Marketing Director for Asia Pacific James Gray said the company is hoping to get a person that will be working with telecommunications providers in the Philippines and to maximize channel partnerships within the year.

EA Mobile develops and publishes games for the mobile phone market. Among the games it publishes include Spore, The Sims, FIFA, Madden, Need for Speed series, among others.

Incidentally, the simple block game Tetris remains the most popular in Asia, according to Gray.

Gray said EA Mobile is looking at Asia’s huge mobile phone penetration, as well as growth in high end mobile phone usage, which can run some games.

He also said that EA expects to be successful in the region, though they still need to set up pricing strategies.

“Would they want it pay-for-play or monthly subscription?” he posed.

He added that there is also a trend in gamer behavior where gamers will want to get access to their favorite console and online games through their mobile phones. “They can play on their mobile device, look at their game progress while on the go,” he said.

MANILA, Philippines – In the end, there could be only one.

Several Filipino gaming journalists (including this writer) spent an afternoon to compete in the first Intel Asia PC Gaming Showdown here. This competition aims to draw out the best gamers among those who write games and the industry it has created.

Gaming and technology journalist John Nieves defeated other gaming journalists and was declared this year’s winner. He will be entered into an Asian draw.

Intel said the overall top-scoring three competitors in the tally will be flown to the “EA Experience,” an Electronic Arts branded venue that is located at The Peak Tower in Hong Kong, this October to compete for the championship.

This gaming competition is part of a regional event that includes other players from India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam competing to qualify for the finals in Hong Kong, Intel Philippines Marketing Manager Jerome Matti said.

“As part of Intel’s ongoing commitment to the gaming industry, the Intel Asia PC Gaming Showdown will give those passionate about gaming — gaming media and gamers alike — the chance to experience today’s most exhilarating games in amazing detail, made possible by Intel Core 2 Extreme processors,” added Rupal Shah, Intel Marketing Director for Asia Pacific, in a statement.

Matti said the competition involves gaming journalists playing three popular PC games, namely Need for Speed Pro Street, Crysis and FIFA 2008.

“We are extremely excited about being a part of this event. As a leading games publisher and developer, this is the perfect platform to show off our best titles to the gaming media who review games on a daily basis,” added Jon Niermann, President of EA Asia Pacific, in a statement.

The Filipino gaming journalists played several games on the latest Intel Core 2 Extreme processor-based PCs provided by Villman Computer Systems.

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

SINGAPORE – Gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) made major announcements of new titles for Asia during the Games Convention Asia (GCA) 2008 in Singapore.

EA Asia announced the availability of Warhammer Online, FIFA Online and NBA Street Online. The first two will be launched within the three-day period of GCA. NBA Street Online was already launched in several markets, including the Philippines.

EA Asia President Jon Niermann said nearly half of the world online gaming market is from Asia, making it a viable market for EA.

“Digital content on online and mobile is where we’re going to spend majority of our time because that’s where people are playing in Asia,” Niermann said.

However, the biggest announcement is the much-anticipated launch of the Asian version of Rock Band, a hugely popular multiplayer band simulation game that had been available only in Europe and North American markets.

Rock Band will be available for Asian versions of Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 and will be sold primarily in Singapore.

Prices have also been set for an instrument pack consisting of one guitar, one drum set and one mic, or as individual items.

The instrument pack will cost S$269 (P8,850), while the drum and guitar will cost S$179 (P5,888) and $S149 (P4,900), respectively.

Incidentally, the Rock Band disc would be sold separate. The Xbox 360 version will cost S$60 (P1,970) and S$71 (P2,300) for the PS3 version.

Aside from the new launches, EA Asia also presented several other titles for the PC, console and mobile gaming market.

By Alexander Villafania

THE NBA video game series from Electronic Arts Sports may perhaps be the most popular sports title in the Philippines. iPlay, the casual games joint venture of e-Games and TV company GMA, is taking the title even further to the online gaming market.

iPlay invited technology and gaming journalists to attend the launch of NBA Street Online, which is reported to be the first massively-multiplayer online sports game of EA’s Canadian development branch.

Details have been withheld until the local launch date but from what has been gathered, EA co-developed the game with a Korean firm, Neowiz.

One Taiwanese company, Gigamedia Limited confirmed in July that it will be distributing the game in China. The existence of the game has only been confirmed through press releases though EA’s official sites have not disclosed the game.

Nonetheless, the NBA Street franchise is well-known game for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, with the latest console version, NBA Street Homecourt, to be released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3.

The console game versions are all three-on-three multiplayer basketball games that are set in public courts, thus the name.

Not surprisingly, NBA Street Online could compete directly with Freestyle Online, the first online basketball game in the Philippines distributed by e-Games rival Level-Up! which is also a three-on-three game played on public basketballs courts.