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

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Celebrating the launch of Entertainment Convergence Forum

 

Recently Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA)-affiliated Entertainment Convergence Forum has launched. Kim Jung-hwan, a CEO of a crowdfunding site UCANSTART, is in charge of the Forum. And to assist in the task of producing inter-industrial synergy, the forum has set up an advisory group of influential content-related organizations and companies including such as SBS Contents Hub (former SBSi), Licensing Executive Society International (LESI), Korea Contents Business Center (KCBC), a character licensor, a webtoon agency, a venture capital firm specializing in content, etc.

 

We've already lived in a world of convergence. We use various electronic products which are applied technological convergence and existing technologies connect us into something that is much more integrated and unified. A car, which can be considered as the final boss of mechanical engineering in our daily lives, has long been controlled by a computer. Plus, a videotape, an analog magnetic tape used for storing video and sound, is now a thing of the past from Reply TV Series because of old media's digitalizing. Besides, without information and communications technology, we cannot enjoy various video contents at our home, and without wireless data technology, numerous commuters on the subway probably don't know what to do in their spare time. It's not easy for us to see a person reading a comic book as much as a person using a beeper while most people read webtoons on their smartphones.

 

Also, the present government's economic policy, which is called "Creative Economy", is likely to look for an answer by convergence. The government is expanding its investment for the new industrial convergence and creating convergence industrial complexes by regions. Now we should support the development of industrial or technological convergence that could feed the nation in the future.

 

However, the gaming industry has always been the first to the convergence. A video game, which was originally based on combination of image, sound, and programming techniques, are now blending a variety of technologies—input interface, communications, image processing, game engine, game mechanics, stereophonic sound, AI (artificial intelligence), display, VR (virtual reality), and AR (augmented reality)—and various contents—text-based storytelling contents, graphics, music—into one. It's not easy to imagine the next step of technological convergence in the gaming industry. Just two decades ago, few predicted that tens of thousands of players spend their time online simultaneously playing an MMORPG (massively-multiplayer online role-playing game). Likewise, ten short years before, hardly anyone expected almost everybody on the subway would play games on their smartphones.

 

People whose basic needs—shelter, clothing, food and so forth—are met naturally find something to entertain themselves. There are many other forms of entertainment available: fishing, music, and film, etc. Among them, a video game is one of the leading content convergence in the entertainment industry. So in that sense, I hope that the Entertainment Convergence Forum will contribute greatly to the development of the gaming industry.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Adieu 2015!!! (Part2)

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Adieu 2015!!! (Part2)

 

Let me summarize the 'Part1'. In 2015, numerous highly popular role-playing games have been published and many famous actors who modeled in TV commercials have heightened the status of the video games, however, a small number of RPGs are dominating the domestic market due to excessively high advertising costs. This year, indie games, called clicker games or idle games, have shown better-than-expected performance and Chinese games have advanced in the Korean market in large numbers.

 

Following the issues, Nexon and Webzen, which were both powerful in online game development, have pulled ahead of the other mobile game makers. Nexon didn't show any clear results before 2015. Webzen was also gradually declining with its glory behind and MU The Genesis, the most ambitious mobile game of the developer, made poor performance. However, Nexon came back in 2015 as a new boss of mobile game industry releasing top-ranking games from Dominations to Hit, which brought the company up to No.1 in sales ranking, and Fantasy War Tactics. Webzen emerged as one of the strong in the mobile game market since MU Origin, a mobile version of MU, was released in the local market after its huge success in China.

 

Licensed games have been so popular in 2015. YD Online's God of Highschool and Lunosoft's Disney Catch Catch followed after the success of Netmarble's Marvel: Future Fight in early last year, which became a motivator of the successive release of others. The boom of licensed games has a lot to do with advertising costs. With easy name recognition, it relatively spends less advertising campaign costs than a new, untested IP. It seems that the trend would be continued by 2016 because there are many licensed games which are currently planned and developed.

 

Besides, I'd like to talk about game developers who have left the country abroad. I've already noted this issue in 2014. It started to be evident starting from 2015. Overseas Korean game makers haven't yet had anything to show for, however, they reexported games, which they already released in the overseas market, to Korea. Some of the companies moved to America or Japan, while most of them moved to China. This trend would be accelerated further if the gaming industry is continually snubbed by the Korean government and some of them perform well in the foreign market.

 

Also, there are many depressing stories like shrinking investment for the game market, existing imbalances between released games, and rising production costs, etc. But I want to see the positive side. I examined the past eventful year with the title named 'Adieu 2015!!!'. The new year has come. People in the gaming industry have never given up whenever they faced with periodical adversities. Game developers and their employees may be in difficult situations in 2016, however, I guarantee that they could navigate through the rough waters of the changeable gaming world.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Adieu 2015!!! (Part1)

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Adieu 2015!!! (Part1)

 

The year 2015 is coming to an end soon. This column would be probably released in the new year. I feel like to blame a love who dumped someone before one can barely go 10lis—approximately equal to 5kms—, however, I want to let the year 2015 go and have meaningful time looking back over the past year.

 

To begin with, many highly popular RPG(Role-playing game)s have been released in 2015. Until January of this year, Clash of Clans notched up to the No.1 spot competing with No.2 ranking Seven Knights and the other top-ranked RPGs such as Hero and Monster Tamer. By March, Raven immediately rose to the number one just after its release. MU Origin, which was published at the end of April, competed for first place with Raven for some time since, and Seven Knights joined in ever since before the release of Idea and Hit in November. Six games including Hit, MU Origin, Raven, Seven Knights, Idea, and Monster Tamer are currently placed in the top ten based on sales and four games in top five are role-playing games. Taking this into consideration, RPGs have been particularly loved by users for nearly a year.

 

Secondly, many famous actors have modeled for video games in TV commercials or billboards. Cha Seung-won for Raven was first one, followed by top actors including Ha Jung-woo for ChronoBlade, Jang Dong-gun for Mu Origin, Lee Jung-jae for Ghost, Jung Woo-sung for 乱斗(Romaja: Nantoo), and Lee Byung-hun for Idea. It reflects the heightened status of the video game. On the one hand, a small number of RPGs are gaining control of the gaming market. A newly-released video game without a big advertising campaign is almost impossible to be high on various game charts where the top players generate most of the industry-wide revenue.

 

Moreover, clicker games—also known as incremental games or idle games—such as Survive, Sunfish!, Tap Titans 2, Mr.Kim, Idle Knight, and Endless Frontier have shown better-than-expected results. Idle games can be made in a relatively short period time and an idea especially counts for them. Therefore incremental games are now emerging as a new alternative of the smaller firms or indie game developers. In-game advertising, which often serves as an advertising media for the popular ones ranked high in the list of games, is a major source of the clicker game's revenue.

 

Finally, Chinese game makers have started to expand into the domestic market. At the beginning of the year, a large number of internal game developers had plans to enter the Chinese market. In sharp contrast, now there are too many news stories about Chinese games which would be released in Korea. It's hard to acknowledge the reality of the situation we're in because any Chinese game hasn't held the top spots in-game revenue ranking yet. However, if you look at it closely, there are dozens of Chinese games in the domestic ranking. Besides, MU Origin, though it is a mobile version of the Korean game, can be considered as a top-ranked Chinese game in the home market because it was made in China.

- to be continued

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui