THQ ICE: Players need to be encouraged to switch MMOs

THQ*ICE CEO Eddie Chen has said that players need an incentive to give up their current MMOs for a new one, in much the same way that people needed reasons to switch from standard TVs to high definition ones.

His comments come as the company launches its Side-Scroller Showdown incentive for its recently launched free-to-play MMO Dragonica. The incentive challenges MMO players to try out Dragonica Online and then decide if they prefer it to their existing MMO game. If they choose to switch, they're rewarded with in-game cash, and if they decide to stick with their current game they're also given cash to spend in that game.

Chen told GamesIndustry.biz the incentive hadn't arisen out of doubts the game would do well in the Western market, but rather because the company wanted it to reach its full potential quicker.

"We always knew Dragonica would be successful, however just by looking back at other games and looking at their growth pattern we believed it would take longer for Dragonica to reach its ultimate success because people always have an attachment to the existing game they are playing," he said.

"When colour TVs took over from black and white ones, colour TV was a good thing. Now people are switching to HD TV. If you don't give any push people will still switch to HD as they did with colour. But the industry has made a concerted effort to support HD and we see people switching quicker, because it's a next generation thing," he explained.

"It is the same with the gaming industry and with Dragonica. It is a better game than one that has been out for 7-8 years - it will take over. We just wanted the process to be quicker. And for the users it's better, because if you can pay the same price to watch an HD TV why would you still watch the old colour TV? In fact, the same price is zero - it's a free game."

Speaking about ICE's partnership with THQ, which came about in 2008, Chen said the deal had made sense for both companies as THQ looked to enter the online space, and ICE sought a publishing partner in the West.

Dragonica is the first title to come out of that partnership and Chen added that more of ICE's China-developed titles would follow, while the partnership could also work vice-versa with the Chinese operator launching THQ titles in the East.

"One of the reasons we entered into the partnership was to gain more collaboration opportunities going forward. And those opportunities will involve bringing more Eastern titles and localising them to what I would call THQ standard for the Western market," he said.

"At the same time, THQ also has a strategic plan for their online game business so we'll also be able to facilitate some of these games going from the West to the East. THQ*ICE was just the first step towards many opportunities."

"The online gaming market is not an easy market to enter into now both in the East and the West," he added. "It's a growing market, but there are a lot of funds being pumped into it and a lot of new games being released every month.

"The competition is becoming very very sharp. But in an entertainment industry the most important thing - I believe - is still the content. You have to have the right content for the market, then the second important thing is knowing how to service your customers well so that they keep playing your game and hopefully, when you have another game, they move onto your other game."

Chen said that ICE currently has two further MMO titles in development - one internally, and one in collaboration with another studio. Plus it is working on other social games, launching on the Chinese equivalent of Facebook.

"The interesting thing is that although the Chinese culture is different to the Western culture, in terms of the internet culture, it's actually quite similar," he pointed out. "So we'll be able to bring some of these social games into the US market quickly, which is something we're considering.

"But the important thing is localising those games properly. With THQ and ICE we are very specific about the localisation quality. Gamers have said our localisation quality is the best with Dragonica - we really took our time with every sentence, making sure they were spoken the right way in English."