泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
Video game and fund (Part.1)
Recently the local gaming industry is having a hard time due to reduced investment. As a venture capitalist, one of the biggest reasons is mostly a huge investment loss in the entire industry from 2013 to 2015. When it comes to venture investment, investors generally expect to make profits, as much as making up for the other losses, from a few companies that they invested in. However, multiple-combined serious losses of the whole industry could lead to a negative view of putting investors' money into video game development. Very few people have generated revenue from game makers in the last three years, while most investors have been losing money. I cannot give you a precise figure, however, the company I'd be in is no exception from it.
The world of national investment, in common with domestic gaming firms becoming more global recently, cannot be separated from the global financial market. The reason Brexit had a direct influence on the local equities market, as well as the real estate market is that the local financial market has a strong correlation with overseas financial markets.
Recently the U.S. has consistently raised the rate of interest. It's probably because of a variety of issues such as unemployment, inflation, and national debt, etc. Just very simply, the U.S. interest rates seem to have nothing to do with the interior gaming industry. However, as I've mentioned, financial markets in Korea and overseas are all deeply linked together. If the United States raises its key interest rates, American investors will want to withdraw their investments overseas. In addition to them, many capitalists from various nations will flock to America. Among them, South Korea particularly has a vulnerable fund market structure. A lot of foreign capital, even though it may not be seen, has been flowing into the local industry as a whole. And many domestic game developers and publishers have had a very substantial inflow of investment from other countries through various channels since the Korean gaming industry is one of the best in the world. Capital outflow from the Korean market to the U.S. will lead to further weaken investment in the field of the local gaming industry which is already sharply shriveled.
I don't mean that developers should give up to make a video game due to Korea's struggling gaming industry. Sharing the problem with the video game interested, I'd like to find a way to survive in a very tough situation. A game made by people and the workers need money. So I want to talk about capital in the domestic gaming industry over the next few weeks. It's going to be somewhat strict and serious matters, however, I'll try to talk about lighter topics, if possible.
※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
(http://www.khgames.co.kr)
Translation by Kim Ki-hui
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