By Eileen Yu
Tuesday, February 15 2005 12:00 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/personaltech/0,,39217780,00.htm

SINGAPORE‑‑Japanese game developer Koei has set up a new development facility in Singapore in an attempt to extend its reach beyond the Asian region, creating content that is relevant to the global market.

With an initial investment of S$3 million (US$1.8 million), Koei Entertainment Singapore will be the company’s biggest development studio outside Japan. The center will be staffed by a team of more than 100 engineers, 90 percent of which will come from Singapore and other neighboring countries, the firm said at its official opening today.

At the event, Teo Ming Kian, chairman of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, described the game developer’s presence here as a “major milestone” as it will be the island-state's first “full-fledged” PC game development studio.

The Singapore government has previously expressed high hopes of turning the country into a booming market for online and mobile games, and has committed S$12.5 million (US$7.3 million) for the development of its digital media sector. In addition, authorities like the Infocomm Development Authority Singapore have also launched several programs to lure regional online game developers and distributors to host their offerings in Singapore.

Keiko Erikawa, Koei’s CEO and chairman, said: "It is our hope that Koei Entertainment Singapore will become a nucleus of talented individuals from around the world, and create valuable entertainment content that will appeal to the world."

The Yokohama City-based firm has a string of popular games in its stable, including titles such as Nobunaga’s Ambition, Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. To date, sales of the three games have totaled over 20 million copies.

However, firm's current development efforts have been largely focused on creating content for the Japanese, Korean and Chinese markets.

The company has also mainly concentrated on pushing game titles on the PC and gaming consoles such as the Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox. Its foray into the online games market, with the release of Nobunaga’s Ambition Online, has targeted only the Japanese community--though a Chinese version is scheduled for launch in Taiwan and Hong Kong later this year.

But Koei has now set its sights on expanding beyond Japanese and Chinese-speaking markets. It has high hopes that the Singapore studio, with its multi-cultural and multi-lingual staff, will help pave the way, company officials said. The local facility will be responsible for porting the company’s game titles to English-based platforms and developing MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing games).

First local project
Koei Singapore's first project is to develop an online version of its popular turn-based strategy game Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is slated for release in 2007 across the region including Singapore, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea.

While there are aspirations for the studio here to produce new titles, these will take some time to develop, Erikawa said.

Its employees in Singapore are still "inexperienced" and undergoing training, she explained. Erikawa added that it may take between 18 and 24 months before the team here have the necessary skills to develop new titles.

Kok Wah Chuen, 26, is a local fan of Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. An avid console and PC gamer since 1990, he currently spends an average 15 hours a week playing games.

When told of Koei's plan to develop an online version of the game, Kok expressed a keen interest in its release.

"There’s a lot of potential in bringing the game online… but it’s hard to tell if they’ll be able to break into the online market," he said.

"I think a lot will still depend on loyalty (among the game’s fan base) and how interactive the online version is going to be. Some online titles have small maps and you can just keep walking around the same places," he said.

To keep online gamers interested, Kok noted that developers should constantly add new elements to the game.