Level Up! Inc. merges with E-Games

Yesterday, Cupid just hit two of the biggest online game publishing businesses.  IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (E-Games) and Level Up! Inc. (LUI) have reached an agreement to merge their businesses.

 According to their Press Release, most of E-Game’s titles and assets relating to its game publishing business will be transferred to LUI and the publishing operations of said titles will be merged into LUI’s associated online game publishing company, Playweb Games Inc. In exchange, E-Games will receive equity in LUI, a commercial interest in Playweb Games Inc., and a cash consideration.

A little background on both companies first.  E-Games is the first listed online gaming company in the Philippines and is the only such listed company to date.  Most of their games are free-to-play and has over 15.9 million registered gamers with an average of 3.5 million active users per month.  LUI pioneered the online game business in the Philippines.  I remember when I first played Ragnarok Online back in 2006 and only now have I realized that it was such a successful business model.

Now that these two are merged, they are expected to account for the majority of the Philippine online games market.  They will have, along with Playweb Games Inc., the widest gaming pre-paid cards and PINs distribution network and also offer a portfolio of hugely popular and successful games between them.  I’ve played a number of games from both companies and I must say they are of great quality considering most are free to play.

With the merge in place, we’d be expecting more support for the local online gaming community and hopefully better games.  I do also hope this can lower the cost of premium items, game time, etc, as the merger is expected to strategically benefit both companies financially.