1) IGG is celebrating its third anniversary, can you tell us a little bit about how the company started?
Kevin Xu : IGG was started in 2006, by the so called, the Three Musketeers of IGG. Duke Cai (CEO), Kevin Xu (COO) and Edmond Chi (CTO). Duke used to be the former CEO of 17173.com（The largest game information site in China.）Kevin was a Nano-technology scientist, and Edmond was former VP at NetDragon.
When we first started, we only had one game and a few employees. Yet we still structured the company to be an International MMORPG Publisher/Operator/Developer. It took us almost a year to finalize our data center infrastructure and payment processors. Afterwards, we launched two games in 2007 and 5 in 2008. On the game development side, we spend the first year and half developing our 3D game engine. Using this engine, we later build Godswar Online.
2) What sets IGG apart from other F2P companies currently in the market?
Kevin Xu : Well, the greatest difference would be SERVICE, starting from day one, we understand that running MMORPGs is not simply just publishing the games, but also, operating them; providing the players with first class service, that is a labor intensive task. At IGG, for every 500 Peak Concurrent Online users, we staff one customer service personnel. For beginners, we provide them with 24x7 live support. For old players, we have VIP services customized to meet all their requirements. We currently have 550 employees, a majority of them are Game Masters, Customer Support and Community Managers.
3) IGG has a diverse portfolio of F2P MMOs currently released in North America. Which of these has proven the most popular, and why?
Kevin Xu : IGG do have a diversified portfolio, luckily North American players have a great appetite for different types of games. Tales of Pirates is currently the best performing game, mostly due to its cartoon style and pirate adventure storyline. Also, the two recent launch, Freesky Online and 2029 Online, is gaining a lot of traction, likely to catch up with Tales of Pirates in performance.
4. Can you tell us a little bit about the localization process that IGG’s games go through before being brought to the North American market?
Kevin Xu : Operating games globally, the key to success is to minimize culture difference. IGG has a 30 people localization team, whose key task is to neutralize some of the culture intensive designs within the game, and convert them into something that can be easily blended into different cultures.
