Apart from that, what makes Korean gamers unique is that players are really competitive. That’s always the key in the game business. What are the key factors that make a game successful in Korea? Guardian Stone, one of NHN Entertainment’s games scheduled for release in the USA in the near future. You will see many Korean mobile games trying to penetrate western market in the third quarter of 2014, and its result will have great impact on Korean game businesses. Thus many companies including NHN Entertainment USA are focusing on delivering games to global market. The market grew fast with a successful business model that integrated mobile games with Kakao Talk, the #1 messaging service in Korea.Īctually, the speed of growth was so fast that people already say that the market is being saturated. However, last year was all about mobile games. Online PC games dominated last decade in Korea. How has the video game market in Korea changed over the past decade? What was the biggest change in the market and what do you foresee will have the biggest impact in the future? In this interview, Siliconera spoke with staff from NHN about the evolution of the games industry in South Korea and what makes a game successful in the region. They also have their eyes on the West and opened NHN Entertainment USA. NHN Entertainment, a subsidiary of the goliath Naver Corporation, publishes the MMORPG Tera in South Korea and is expanding in the mobile game market with their Toast brand.

Recently, the market has changed with Gamevil rising and more developers even giants like Nexon turning their attention to mobile. While some developers dabbled with console games like Crimson Gem Saga which Atlus localized for North America and the quirky PS2 game Muta Juice, for the most part game developers in South Korea focused on online PC games. To keep costs low, South Korean developers came up with the concept of microtransactions, which are standard now but the idea of selling virtual goods was uncharted territory when Nexon experimented with the idea. PC games like MapleStory and Ragnarok Online became international hits that established the South Korean video game industry over a decade ago.

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