Gaming fans in Southeast Asia are getting another game to add on to their repertoire. Friendster announced today that it has partnered with Austrian independent game developer Pro 3 Games to launch and host Starforce Delta FX across Southeast Asia.
Starforce Delta (the site says it’s still in beta version) is a sci-fi game that is “not a classic MMO”, but an “asynchronous multi-player game”, which means players share the same universe but do not necessarily play simultaneously.
Starforce Delta FX will be part of the Friendster Exclusive series – a collection of browser games that are exclusive to the social discovery and gaming platform. With Starforce Delta FX, Friendster users will get specialized in-game items and will also receive bonus in-game currency when they top up their game wallet.
Friendster shed its previous incarnation as a social networking service last year and has been focusing on games to stay competitive.
Friendster CEO Iannis Hanen says:
Besides providing a challenging gameplay for our users, which is of utmost importance, Starforce Delta FX is anticipated to have great potential in terms of monetization with Friendster coins, Friendster’s flagship virtual currency.
Friendster was acquired by one of Asia’s leading e-payment and e-lifestyle providers, MOL Global, in 2009, and at the time was still one of the region’s largest online communities, though it has typically been popular in Asia, with the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore ranking particularly highly in recent years.
The company is coy with figures, but about a year ago it apparently had more than 100 million registered members, though there was little indication how active these members were on the network.
Late last year, Pro 3 Games got an undisclosed amount of capital from German investment firm iVentureCapital.
Image Credit: Robyn Beck via AFP/Getty Images
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.