Frogster Asia, 64% subsidiary of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, an international publisher of massively multiplayer online games with headquarters in Berlin, has achieved to acquire a substantial project financing from an investment fund created by several Asian online games publishing majors to finance a large marketing campaign for ‘Runes of Magic’ in Korea. The project financing in the legal form of a loan will be paid back per revenue shares. Sunny Park, CEO of Frogster Asia, regards the project financing to be “smart money” as the investors have great know-how and experience in marketing MMO game hits in Asia, and as they are consulting the allocation of the project financing’s spending. These experts representing the fund and Sunny Park believe that they can make ‘Runes of Magic’ one of the top ten free-to-play games in Korea with that investment.
Besides that, Frogster Asia has closed a cooperation with Korean internet cafés, in which already over 3.500 of the popular gaming sites are taking part. Internet cafés are being regarded as important community hotspots in Korea and as decisive for the penetration and the success of an MMO game in the market.
In the same time, Frogster Asia has agreed with its sub-licensee, Excite Japan Co. Ltd., that they will return the Japanese license rights for ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ (‘TCoS’) to Frogster Asia. After an open beta test phase, Excite has built the opinion that the core client based MMORPG does not fit well in their more casual oriented entertainment portfolio and thus will terminate the beta version service. With the return of the rights, Frogster is in the position to appoint a new publishing partner for ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ in Japan. Currently, Frogster group management is in dialogue with Spellborn NV, the original developer of ‘TCoS’ about the future of the MMO game. The Frogster management does not see risks but only opportunities in ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ at this point as the license assets have been fully written off already and no revenues from ‘TCoS’ have been calculated in business expectations. Hence, every future business with the innovative fantasy MMO game would be a positive surprise and on top of all business plans and analysts’ forecasts.