1. Startup

Kompas Gramedia Launches Game Publishing Company Digital Eight

Some time ago, Wiku reported about Kompas Gramedia’s plan on entering game industry segment by being game publisher. The plan realized by Kompas Gramedia by establishing Digital Eight since March 7, 2012. Digital Eight is the game publisher under Group of Magazine Kompas Gramedia.

Digital Eight will focus on online and mobile game for iOS. Currently, it already formed a partnership with Manticore Studio to develop The Great Adventures: Bona and Friends and Mombi Goal. These games are planned to be released by the end of August or early September. In the future, Digital Eight will also work together with several local studios/game developers.

According to Adhityaswara Nuswandana, Game Division Manager of Digital Eight, in addition to The Great Adventures: Bona and Friends which brings the characters Bona and Rong-Rong, Digital Eight also plans to bring Intelectual Properties (IP) characters owned by Kompas Gramedia in to The Great Adventures game series. Some of them are prepared to be released this year.

On the online game field, Digital Eight also prepares the Giga Slave online game to be brought to Indonesia. Giga Slave is a game from Korea developed by GNI Soft and published in Korea by SESI Soft. On its Facebook Page, Digital Eight has released some previews of the game that has a graphic similar to Metal Slug. Giga Slave is chosen because of its MMO side scrolling genre is unique and new. Digital Eight is certain that this game will be welcomed by the market which already packed by MMOFPS games.

After Giga Slave, Digital Eight will also release another online game by the end of this year. The title is kept secret but Adhitya leaks that the game is an MMORPG game with cute and fun characters. Digital Eight has even did a close deal with a publisher from Korea to bring a game that is similar to Devil May Cry to Indonesia next year.

For online game, Digital Eight will target teenage boys and girls of 14 – 25 years old in Indonesia while for mobile game, it will target on the same market but on international scale. Therefore, Digital Eight will try to release 5 mobile game and 2 online game every year.