The flagship of Mega’s move online is Plugirl Maker Online, a character-raising game designed, researched and developed by the company. It is scheduled to be licensed to a Japanese online operator and be available in the Japanese market at the end of this year.

Mega says that it will also release one further game to that Japanese operator each year: in other words, Japan is Mega’s online target for the immediate future.

According to a director of Mega, Plugirl Maker Online was launched in its home territory of Taiwan in May, and is linked to a larger community network called Plurk. Yet because it’s not advertised or promoted, the number of simultaneous online players is only about 20,000 to 30,000 so far.

However, the game is expected to be operated and promoted commercially by the end of this year, and there will be more promotional activity and advertising from February. It can also be downloaded as a standalone PC game, distinct from its online vision.

Plugirl Maker Online is not Mega’s first product launched in Japan; the firm had already exported a major AWP game machine to the Japanese market last year. Historically, Mega’s activity has been focused on AWP machines, which still comprise more than 90 percent of its business.

But in order to penetrate the lucrative online gaming market, Mega acquired Thirty Game Media, a game operator, and Guan Tian Xia, a software developer. Together they will release Pandora Legend, an online massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) game. With its recently-acquired online infrastructure, Mega is creating further inroads into its new market.

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