泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

Fragmentary thoughts on G-Star 2018

 

22. Nov. 2019

Not long ago, G-Star—an annual trade show for the computer and video games industry—2018 was held. Under the slogan "Let Games be Stars", the 14th global game exhibition for game fans both at home and abroad showed popular games and introduced new games that are scheduled to be released. Apart from B2C(business-to-consumer) hall experiencing ups and downs with varied experiences, today I'd like to talk about B2B hall next to the B2C space.

 

G-Star means a lot to me because I go to Busan every year for the show and I exchange information with people in the gaming-related industry during the event. Unlike B2C events for ordinary visitors, B2B hall is for people who find business opportunities. Lots of business meetings are conducted in the exclusive space. Overseas companies look for a Korean game to launch in their own countries and vice versa. Video game marketing and PR agencies promote the strength of their marketing tools and game solution provider companies boost their high-performance solutions. B2B hall where only hundreds of people visit, in comparison with tens of thousands of visitors to the B2C hall, is filled with enthusiasm. There is passion and struggle to survive.

 

My impression of the B2B hall was no longer the same although I spend time in G-Star every year. I could feel the desperation of the smaller game businesses than ever before. As I noted a couple of times, I'm working for a venture capital firm. I have financed two game studios' development expenses this year. Various constraints, I.e. individual ability and available resources, used to lead me not to invest in as many as small and medium-sized game companies as possible. The scale and frequency of Investment are so low against the number of businesses which want to be funded. Most venture capital firms are not considering investing in game developers. Many VCs have lost from investment in game companies in recent years. And the losses resulted in investors' conservatism compared to a few years ago. I had business meetings twice as many as before for potential investees during the G-Star. I couldn't meet all of them due to the time limit because I'm one of the tiny handful of venture capitalists who desire to invest in game content. It is utterly deplorable and regrettable.

 

Despite everything, I still believe that there are plenty of opportunities to invest in. The local gaming industry ranked among the world's top countries shouldn't be destructed. Because further efforts will be needed to recover its industrial base. In recent years, the Korean gaming industry has struggled with various government regulations. So now I expect the government to provide smaller game developers with diverse measures including financial aids and start to look into various actions to strengthen its industrial base.

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui