Taiwan’s publishers of insanely popular, massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are relying more and more on good old offline mass media to recruit players to their virtual worlds. TV is the medium of choice, and commercial breaks feature video grabs of evil demons in deadly action, or cloyingly sexy animated pop idols inviting all to dance and sing.
This year’s advertising onslaught began last spring as university students prepared for final exams. Heavy promotion pushed PC/online game adspend to NT$510.9 million (US$15.6 million) for the first half of the year, up a whopping 283 per cent year on year, according to Nielsen Taiwan. Ninety per cent went on TV (77 per cent cable; 13 per cent terrestrial), with six per cent spent on OOH, and a mere four per cent shared among newspapers, magazines and radio.
The big spenders were Taiwan game publishers and developers. Two of them - Gamania and Soft-World - dominate the domestic MMOG market, and are positioning themselves as regional digital entertainment platforms. Often aligned with or outright owned by these leaders are smaller players, a few of the notables being the casual game portal FunTown (owned by GigaMedia) and MMOG developers IGS, UserJoy, Wasabii, Lager and more.
Meanwhile, conspicuously absent are the global big three console game makers - Sony with its PlayStation, Microsoft with Xbox and Nintendo with Wii.
Only Nintendo spent enough to cling to the last rung of Nielsen’s top 10 game spenders, while Sony and Microsoft missed the cut for the top 20. What does this mean? In short, Taiwan, like the rest of Asia outside of Japan, is witnessing a sea change in its gaming culture. The era of shrink-wrapped, licensed-to-end-user software is giving way to online subscriptions or free-to-play models.
Euromonitor, which tracks game sales in the bricks-and-mortar channel, estimated last year’s total sales at NT$10.8 billion, with hardware taking NT$7.3 billion and software NT$3.5 billion. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo own this turf. “Software sales for console games are weak because of piracy,” says Luke Hsieh, analyst at Government-run Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC). “People don’t buy the legitimate games because they can download pirated versions for free.”
Available for free download, or sold on disk for a nominal NT$40 at the island’s 9,500 convenience stores, online games enjoy an enormous user base. Hsieh forecasts revenue of NT$11.6 billion for online games this year. “End-user spend is growing 10 to 12 per cent a year,” says Hsieh. “The games are free-to-play if you don’t want to advance beyond level 10. To do that, you need to visit the virtual mall and buy some virtual items.”
Taiwan’s online gaming traces back to 2000 when a little known software developer, today known as Gamania, became the Taiwan licensee for a South Korean developer, NCsoft, and its role-playing MMOG, Lineage. To host it, Gamania built Asia’s biggest server farm, and with Lineage pioneered a new market. In 1999, online games accounted for NT$90 million - roughly two per cent - of the NT$3.4 billion in revenue for PC/online games. In 2004, PC games’ share had shrunk to NT$1.8 billion, with online games earning NT$7.2 billion, of which Lineage - then near its peak - is believed to have generated 40 per cent.
Gamania licensed Maple Story from Korea’s Wizet in 2005 to bring in younger gamers, and has a portfolio of locally developed online games. Lineage has since been eclipsed by the rise of role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW), which Blizzard licensed to rival Soft-World in November 2005. Soft-World, along with its subsidiaries, is believed to dominate the industry now.
These companies look set to grow into major advertisers - though for now their tactics will remain rudimentary. Ingrid Huang, digital media director at Neo@Ogilvy, concludes: “To generate awareness of specific games, media coverage and the impact of TVCs are more than enough.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 24 September 2009 issue of Media.
This year’s advertising onslaught began last spring as university students prepared for final exams. Heavy promotion pushed PC/online game adspend to NT$510.9 million (US$15.6 million) for the first half of the year, up a whopping 283 per cent year on year, according to Nielsen Taiwan. Ninety per cent went on TV (77 per cent cable; 13 per cent terrestrial), with six per cent spent on OOH, and a mere four per cent shared among newspapers, magazines and radio.
The big spenders were Taiwan game publishers and developers. Two of them - Gamania and Soft-World - dominate the domestic MMOG market, and are positioning themselves as regional digital entertainment platforms. Often aligned with or outright owned by these leaders are smaller players, a few of the notables being the casual game portal FunTown (owned by GigaMedia) and MMOG developers IGS, UserJoy, Wasabii, Lager and more.
Meanwhile, conspicuously absent are the global big three console game makers - Sony with its PlayStation, Microsoft with Xbox and Nintendo with Wii.
Only Nintendo spent enough to cling to the last rung of Nielsen’s top 10 game spenders, while Sony and Microsoft missed the cut for the top 20. What does this mean? In short, Taiwan, like the rest of Asia outside of Japan, is witnessing a sea change in its gaming culture. The era of shrink-wrapped, licensed-to-end-user software is giving way to online subscriptions or free-to-play models.
Euromonitor, which tracks game sales in the bricks-and-mortar channel, estimated last year’s total sales at NT$10.8 billion, with hardware taking NT$7.3 billion and software NT$3.5 billion. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo own this turf. “Software sales for console games are weak because of piracy,” says Luke Hsieh, analyst at Government-run Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC). “People don’t buy the legitimate games because they can download pirated versions for free.”
Available for free download, or sold on disk for a nominal NT$40 at the island’s 9,500 convenience stores, online games enjoy an enormous user base. Hsieh forecasts revenue of NT$11.6 billion for online games this year. “End-user spend is growing 10 to 12 per cent a year,” says Hsieh. “The games are free-to-play if you don’t want to advance beyond level 10. To do that, you need to visit the virtual mall and buy some virtual items.”
Taiwan’s online gaming traces back to 2000 when a little known software developer, today known as Gamania, became the Taiwan licensee for a South Korean developer, NCsoft, and its role-playing MMOG, Lineage. To host it, Gamania built Asia’s biggest server farm, and with Lineage pioneered a new market. In 1999, online games accounted for NT$90 million - roughly two per cent - of the NT$3.4 billion in revenue for PC/online games. In 2004, PC games’ share had shrunk to NT$1.8 billion, with online games earning NT$7.2 billion, of which Lineage - then near its peak - is believed to have generated 40 per cent.
Gamania licensed Maple Story from Korea’s Wizet in 2005 to bring in younger gamers, and has a portfolio of locally developed online games. Lineage has since been eclipsed by the rise of role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW), which Blizzard licensed to rival Soft-World in November 2005. Soft-World, along with its subsidiaries, is believed to dominate the industry now.
These companies look set to grow into major advertisers - though for now their tactics will remain rudimentary. Ingrid Huang, digital media director at Neo@Ogilvy, concludes: “To generate awareness of specific games, media coverage and the impact of TVCs are more than enough.”
Got a view?
Email [email protected]
This article was originally published in 24 September 2009 issue of Media.
.jpg&h=334&w=500&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
.png&h=334&w=500&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
.png&h=334&w=500&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
.png&h=334&w=500&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
.jpg&h=268&w=401&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
.png&h=268&w=401&q=100&v=20250320&c=1)
