NEWS
Astrum Online Entertainment
Original article: www.astumonline.ru
Four leading companies on the Russian multiplayer online market are merging into the Astrum Online Entertainment holding company.
The “Nival Online”, “IT Territory”, “TimeZero” and “NIKITA.ONLINE” companies have announced their merger into the Astrum Online Entertainment holding company that became the largest player on the Russian interactive entertainment market. The merger will allow the holding companies' members to synchronize their mutual strategy on the market, and to use their combined experience and infrastructure to perfect their business.
“The creation of Astrum Online Entertainment is the first but long awaited large consolidation on the Russian game market”, — says Sergey Orlovsky, president of Nival Online. “Now the companies' share is 45% of the Russian online game market, which makes Astrum Online Entertainment the unconditional leader in this sector. By the end of 2008 we plan to increase our share to 65% and strengthen our positions on markets abroad”.
“The market of online entertainment in Russia is expanding very rapidly, and now is the most favorable moment to unite our efforts”, — says Vladimir Nikolsky, general director of IT Territory. “When acting separately on their own sector of the market, each company spends time and money competing with each other, missing good business opportunities. The merger will allow, at least, the use of mutual infrastructure and technical decisions, allowing us to focus on major objectives”.
The Russian online market volume in 2007 is estimated to be about 80 million US dollars. At that, the industry is rapidly developing — the rate of growth is almost 100% a year, and the current rate will hold on for the next few years, predict the holding companies analysts. Wide business opportunities that are opening up today on the Russian market of interactive entertainment are attracting leading foreign companies, that are beginning to show themselves quite actively in Russia. For this reason the creation of Astrum Online Entertainment, which was done by the mutual initiative of all participating companies, has two global goals: to consolidate efforts to develop a high-quality Russian online game market, to create a competition to western players that have reached the Russian market, and to make joint entrance to the western market.
“The online market in Russia today is different from that of America and Europe”, — says Boris Gertsovsky, vice-president of the TimeZero company. “The Russian market is comparable to the western, but the developing tendencies lean toward the Asian business-models. I am referring to the “free-to-play” model — games with a free client and no service fee, but with the possibility to buy in-game currency and extra abilities. Today this model has shown itself rather well in Russian browser online games and is expanding to the client online game segment. The holding company also promotes this business-model in its projects, which, I'm sure, will lead to the recognition of online games by the mass audience”.
“The merged companies have vast experience working with online projects, a working infrastructure and technical capabilities”, — says Stepan Zotov general director of NIKITA.Online. “A great portion of Russian-speaking gamers from all over the world prefer our companies' games. By coordinating our efforts we will be able to drastically increase the rate of development of the whole Russian game market. Today we can safely say that the merger of companies of such level means a serious fortification of our position in the world”.
Information about the companies, participating in Astrum Online Entertainment
About Nikita.Online
NIKITA.Online is the first gaming company in Russia that produced their own client online game — a fantasy MMORPG “Sphere”. It is safe to say that the success of the project started the online game market in Russia. Today NIKITA.Online operates with four projects of their own production on the Russian market: the client games Sphere, Sphere:Rebirth, Dom-3, and a browser game WebRacing. By 2009 the company plans to release 4 large online projects, one of which will be Sphere-2. Today the company is the only one in Russia who was successful in developing and releasing client online games.
About TimeZero
Founded in November 2004, the TimeZero company specializes on developing and maintenance of browser online games. Today it is operating a MMORPG of the same name with a light client. The company decided to use modern software-hardware decisions to create a unique universal server platform that can be used to create online worlds of any scale. Three large online projects, that have taken into account the experience of “TimeZero”, will be released in 2008: “Destiny”, “FunnyWar” and “Ordalia”. All three games are being created in the popular MMORPG genre and have different target audiences. A mobile online game “EvilTale” will also be released before the end of 2007. Furthermore, a payment system developed by the company, ZGold.RU, and a social gaming portal Clan.Ru that includes databases of information regarding all leading gaming brands, and free hosting for gaming alliance sites are being tested.
About Nival Online
Nival Online is the leading operator, distributor and developer of client and mobile multiplayer games in Russia. It was founded in 2006 and today the company has its own development studios in Moscow and Voronezh and is the Russian distributor of such leading games of the Asian market as Granado Espada, Perfect World and also “Piratia Online”. The leading positions in Nival Online are occupied by professionals in the computer game industry that have many years of experience on the market. In 2007, in cooperation with the mobile telephone operator “Megafon” the company has released the first Russian online game for mobile phones, “Entis Online” that has become popular in Russia and abroad, and won the award for “Best game for portable platforms” on the computer game developers conference KRI 2007. The is company also developing their own online game “Allod Online” that is one of the most successful Russian gaming brands with a 10 year history. The game is planned to be released in the first quarter of 2009, has an unprecedented development budget for the Russian gaming market and is being created by one of the best development teams in Europe that has taken part in the development of Heroes of Might and Magic V. Nival Online is planning to release around 20 large online projects, some of which will be self-developed, while others will be localized foreign online games.
About IT Territory
The IT Territory company develops and distributes online games and was founded in 2004. Today it is one of the leading companies of the online game market sector. The total amount of registered users on the companies' projects is around 4.7 million people. The company's department IT Territory Casual is the largest distributor of casual games in Russia and has its own network of distribution of these popular games. IT Territory Nord, a casual game development studio and a representative of the company in St. Petersburg, was founded in 2007 and is the leading company in Western Europe that releases games of this genre. The company has over 13 online game projects, including: “Legend: The Dragon's Legacy”, “Territory”, “Zhuki@Mail.Ru””Berserk@Mail.ru”Games@Mail.Ru
