Qeon, Ready to Rock Indonesia’s Online Gaming World in 2014!

Qeon, one of the biggest game publishers in Indonesia, who brings Puzzle Kingdom and Heva Online has successfully draw Indonesian gamers’ interest. Currently, Qeon is preparing three major titles that will be released at the end of this year and the beginning of next year. The three games are Clash of Gods, Lime Odyssey and Kingdom Under Fire II. Duniaku sits with Vidy Onady, Director of Finance & Business Development Qeon, about Qeon’s plan with these three games.

D: During IGS, Qeon teases about three games that was planned to be brought to Indonesia, care to share more?

V: The first one is Clash of Gods which recently won Creative Award in China. The award is actually not surprising since the developer’s specialty is in creating battle sequences animation. The second one is Lime Odyssey that called by many as the spiritual successor of Ragnarok Online since it was made by the same team. This one already launched in South Korea on August and receiving positive response. The last one, and the biggest one, is our major title, Kingdom Under Fire II. This game later will also has its PS3 version with slight difference since PS3 version surely will have a solo campaign feature.

D: As previously mentioned, Kingdom Under Fire II will also have its console version. What is Qeon response to this? Will you provide a separate server or the MMORPG version will not be connected with the console version?

V: For Indonesia, there will be a separate server for the console version.

D: Three great games must be swallowing a hell of investment. Can you tell us more about the marketing strategy for these three games?

V: Our main strategy is still using roadshow since it’s one of the most effective campaigns to reach Indonesian gamers. However, we also have several unique marketing campaigns that is still a secret since they haven’t finalized yet.

D: Is there any exact date for these three games’ release date?

V: We already set the date but I cannot share it yet since we still finalize these games since we want to provide a perfect game, especially on the service. We want to ensure that the gamers won’t encounter any difficulty while playing. Clash of Gods was set to release at the end of this year while Lime Odyssey and Kingdom Under Fire II are set to be released next year.

D: All three games are in the same genre, MMORPG, is there any special consideration from Qeon in choosing the same genre for all three games?

V: People at Qeon are all gamers. That’s why we see games not only from business side but our biggest consideration is, “Will the gamers interested in this game?” These three games are really interesting for us and fun to play and it made us believe that these games will be successful in Indonesian market. Especially since us in Qeon are MMORPG players since the beginning.

D: From these three games, Clash of Gods is the first game that will be release by Qeon. Can you tell us more about this game? What are the most interesting features?

V: One of the most interesting features in this game is the battle sequence. When our character attacked the enemy and using combo, the visual effects are really great to see and flow smoothly. The Player Kill (PK) system and the quests in Clash of Gods also very interesting and different with other MMORPG games. When our character going through the quest, there are two text boxes appeared, one is for what we said to other character while the other is the inner thought of our character. That’s why if the players paid attention to the conversations, Clash of Gods’ storyline is really great. The players also will be closer with its character. PK also really interesting since the character balance is great too. From four classes available, different from other MMORPG games, all four have very different skill set. Yet this doesn’t make one class have more advantage from others but balanced.

D: VIP test for Clash of Gods has just recently finished, how is the response from gamers?

V: The gamers’ response is very positive. We didn’t expect it since the VIP test were actually limited but so many people interested to the point we have to provide additional Key and open new servers. We also encounter problem in transaction system since we had not perfect it yet. Other than that, the most difficult thing from Clash of Gods is the language. In Chinese, two characters is already sufficient for transaction convo while if it translated to Bahasa Indonesia, the sentence will be really long. This language problem that also made the localization process took a considerable amount of time.

D: You mentioned earlier that there are four classes in Clash of Gods, Spellsword, Destroyer, Shaman and Nightblade and all four has balanced power. During the VIP test, which class becomes the gamers’ favorite?

V: Of course Spellswords. This is what is unique from Indonesian gamers. They tend to choose a character based on their looks, whether the character has the most impressive looks. From the four characters based on appearance, Spellswords undoubtedly is the most impressive-looking although from skill set all four characters are balanced.

D: How about you? What is your favorite character?

V: I personally like Nightblade and Shaman. I like Shaman since when we play in teams, such as during faction war, a Shaman is really strong and gravely needed by the team.

D: Will there be local contents added by Qeon in Clash of Gods later?

V: Of course we will! But it still in developing phase. In adding Indonesia-exclusive contents like now, Qeon should communicate intensively with the game developer, Gbits. What we currently discuss in for outfit and avatars exclusive for Indonesia. Gbits themselves is very strict when it comes to quality and knows no compromise. I just recently found out that to create one outfit needs a very long time to make it perfect and that’s why our process takes a long time.

D: About Kingdom Under Fire II, the visual graphic is really great. From what I know, this usually requires computer with high specification. What is the targeted market? Is it for internet café or personal computer users?

V: Yeah, Clash of Gods indeed has a very nice visual graphic. But both Clash of Gods and Kingdom Under Fire II did not require a high-spec computer for the players to be able to play it smoothly since the developers had anticipated it.

D: Qeon already penetrated into mobile game market through Puzzle Kingdom. What is Qeon’s next plan for this mobile market?

V: I personally think that mobile game market needs a correct timing. From what I see, our biggest obstacle is infrastructure. If I want to play a mobile game, I have to connect to a wi-fi hotspot so I won’t be timed out. For example, when I play a game around Sudirman area, I might be able to play it smoothly. Yet when we move further to suburban area, it’s really hard to get a stable connection. And this happens in Jakarta which is a big city. How about other cities? And since we talked about mobile game, we talked about a market that follows smartphone penetration in the whole Indonesia.

D: Game developer numbers in Indonesia keeps growing with good quality. One game publisher even already built a partnership with game developer and publishing their games. Will Qeon take the same step?

V: As a publisher, Qeon really want to help make Indonesia’s game industry better, especially in providing support for local developers. Yet for now, most local game developer still developing their games in mobile platform. We would be glad to provide support but it has to be in line with Qeon’s business strategy. We can see China, to make the market better, the industry should be improved first. Surely with these three games, 2014 will be a very joyful year for MMORPG lovers. Other than that, Qeon is currently preparing a secret game that also planned to be released on 2014.

Whoa, turns out Qeon has more in stores for us! We will keep you updated and meanwhile, let’s watch the videos of those three games that will be released by Qeon here!

http://youtu.be/TYG7w7s-D2Q