Phil Elliott
07:00 (BST)
13/10/2008
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Asia could provide the next "big global IP" - EA
The next "big global IP" could come from one of the emerging markets in Asia, according to Sergio Salvador, manager at EA Partners in the Asia-Pacific region.
He believes that while so far the key worldwide franchise that everybody has seen rise up in the past few years - World of Warcraft - has come from the West, he thinks it's just a matter of time before Asia finds "the right formula" for success.
"Well, we already have a big global IP, it just didn't come from Asia - and that's World of Warcraft, a great game," he said in an interview at this year's Games Convention Asia in Singapore. "It came from the US, and I think the next one could come from Asia.
"The reason why I say that is because until World of Warcraft took the whole of the world - literally - by storm, no one had actually considered that it was a realistic possibility.
"But that's shown a lot of people - not just in the US and Europe - that it is possible. If you get the right formula, you should be able to bring the next big global IP.
"Very importantly, a lot of different people in Asia have seen that, and we're seeing a huge amount of talent coming from Asia, but the main issue that the moment is that it's relatively new, and therefore there's a need to develop the experience to understand what needs to be done to develop the next global IP."
Electronic Arts recently published the MMO Warhammer Age of Reckoning in an attempt to create a world-beating online IP of its own.
The full interview with Sergio Salvador is available now, in which he also discusses the decline of Japan's influence on the global industry, as well as the challenges of IP protection in the region.
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