IP E-GAMES, the Philippine publisher of popular online games such as RAN Online and O2Jam, has confirmed it is bringing in to the Philippines the highly anticipated Granado Espada, the new game from the “Father of Ragnarok” Hakkyu Kim.

“We’re bringing it in. It won the Game of the Year Award in Korea and we’re very excited about it,” Steve Tsao, president of IP e-Games, told hackenslash in a telephone interview.

“See you in the game,” Tsao quipped.

He said that IP e-Games is scheduled to hold a press conference on Jan. 30 to formally announce that it is distributing Granado Espada in the Philippines.

Granado Espada offers a revolutionary system that allows a player to control three characters at once. Singapore-based Infocomm Asia Holdings Pte Ltd is the regional distributor of Granado Espada, and has chosen local publishers in different countries in its bid to consolidate the Southeast Asian online gaming market. With this in mind, IAH held the “One Market, One Asia” regional press conference last September in Singapore, which was attended by Philippine online game publishers, including IP e-Games and Level Up! Inc.

Ironically, the latest game from the “Father of Ragnarok” will in a way be used as a weapon against the company that brought in Ragnarok and popularized it in the Philippines, Level Up! Level Up! is bringing in China’s Perfect World and has also announced that it is gearing up for the release of Ragnarok 2.

IP e-Games has not yet divulged full details of its plans for Granado Espada, and whether the game will also be free-to-play in the Philippines. Currently, all the games of IP e-Games at e-games.com.ph are free-to-play.

Even prior to the official announcement, posts regarding the upcoming release of Granado Espada have already made their way to the Philippine blogosphere, including this PhilGaming.com post by Laibcoms, which stated that a Granado Espada advertisement from IP e-Games is in the January-February issue of GAME! magazine, which is published by Hinge Inquirer Publications, a sister company of INQUIRER.net.

Pro blogger Kiven, who handles the online media initiatives of HIP, has also stated in this blog entry that IP e-Games is bringing in Granado Espada to the Philippines.

By Joey Alarilla
INQUIRER.net