泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌_Harsh advice for local game publishers

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Harsh advice for local game publishers

 

I loved Hong Kong action films such as A Better Tomorrow, Casino Raiders, The Killer during my school days. In the early 90s, Hong Kong pictures were pretty fun and their movie characters were all awesome. Schoolboys tried to look cool with a matchstick in their mouth like Chow Yun-fat and Leslie Cheung even appeared in the domestic commercial film on the small screen. However, the Hong Kong cinemas had seen their best days in ten years due to repeated production of popular-formula genre and a few top-rated actors appeared in several movies.

 

Many people say that Korea's gaming industry is struggling nowadays. Top-ranked games have remained the same in order and newly-released games haven't done especially well. Even good performances of some of them are minuscule compared to those of the greatest hits in the past. In such conditions, the majority of investors suffered a great loss and they were reluctant to make any fresh investments in the video games, which has caused a vicious cycle in the industry.

Most readers probably know the situation in the national gaming industry. The reason why I mentioned the widely-known facts is to criticize irresponsible actions of local big game publishers which have prolonged the vicious cycle.

 

Recently, it seems that the number of bankrupt companies may surpass the number of newly-released games. However, data shows that the market has become bigger. Then where did the increased game revenue go? The only winners must be the big publishers. They have earned consistent profits from the minority of games remaining in the upper ranks during the past few years. Netmarble is said to have 1 trillion won in revenue and sales of Gamevil and Com2uS is known to reach half of it. I don't want to take an issue with corporate profits. However, the large publishers have many game developers into the jaws of death for their own hands now. A barely completed game under tough circumstances due to poor investment is like a lifeline for them. It's nothing short of a matter of life and death. The big game publishers don't find out new ways to market those games which are less effective than existing profitable games. Frankly speaking, most major distributors don't take risks to conduct a huge marketing campaign because they won't suffer a serious loss if they make sales as much as up-front advance payment including down payment, minimum guarantee, license fee, or development cost, etc. The neglected games disappear with the developers after barely making money to meet the publishers' costs not even having a chance to be loved for a long time by users. Publishers may prefer the cost-effective favored product than a new game with an unconvincing possibility when it comes to profitability. However, there is nothing forever. If they abandon potential developers for short-term profits, game makers cannot survive in the market and even game studios, that managed to survive the fierce competition, won't like to work with those vicious distributors. Video games are created by men not robots. Game developers cannot pull together with business partners who they don't trust with. Without consistent cooperation from a longer-term perspective to support developers' potentiality, there is no bright future for domestic publishers. I hope that local publishers won't repeat the same failure as Hong Kong pictures in the early 90s.

 

 

※ 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_Brexit and game worlds

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

Brexit and game worlds

 

Today I'd like to start this column with a none-video game-related story.

 

The Brexit referendum was the biggest news for me recently. Brexit, a portmanteau of "British" and "exit", is the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. As an investor working in the venture capital firm, I thought about various effects both on the global and domestic economy and potential negative impact on venture capital as well. However, I'd like to mention another story here.

Of course, the United Kingdom, which has developed its gaming industry with its world-class market, certainly can be important in the world of the video game. But it's not the major topic. Looking at the English people to exit from the EU, I found that there was one thing in common between the decision-making structure of game users and the popular voting process of the British public. So I'd like to compare both of them side by side.

Granting that a game world is the European Union, game users can be compared to the population of the EU. Like any other video games, there is no game to satisfy everyone. Disgruntled users are everywhere. The UK has benefited from the EU as a member of the political and economic union. It has been given an opportunity in an internal single market for all member states to export and import goods tariff-free and protected with little effort by various international agreements signed by the EU. On the other hand, British membership of the EU put a huge financial burden on the country and it had to take the trouble to host a large number of the refugee population. The UK eventually decided to leave the EU as a majority of people concluded that the membership does more harm than good.

 

Let's compare Brexit with a video game. Now tens of thousands of users are enjoying playing the games. There is no such thing as playing alone among various types of the game. Players sharing the experience with other users by playing the same game each have their legitimate complaints. The best benefit of playing video games is that they offer a wide range of entertainment to users. However, on the other hand, gamers have to spend their time and money for fun. If a game doesn't fulfill the needs of users as much as they spend their energy and money on it, they will leave for another service without hesitation. It's a matter of game balance. If a developer doesn't lead the users to spend adequate time and cash, it cannot make profits. The company will soon be in financial difficulties. On the contrary to this, users being forced to devote so much time and resources finally will give up playing the game. In that case, the game maker also will be in a poor financial situation. So the volume of goods from customers must be kept within the bounds. Developers need to not lose the game balance so that the users are motivated by the costs.

 

None but the fun things in the game can make up for a deficiency in the game balance. There are various fun factors such as brilliant computer graphics, in-game items, and effects, etc. A fun game, which completely satisfies a large number of users, will improve profits no matter how much each player pays for it and, in spite of the high costs and long playtime, users will pay for it as long as the game provides enough fun for them. I expect that many games will continuously have good performances without losing customers, unlike Brexit.

 

 

※ 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 pleasant confession

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

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

 

A pleasant confession

 

I have a confession to make today. Recently I found out that my prediction in public about two years ago was completely wrong. As the introduction says, I've lived as a gamer for twenty years and I've worked in the gaming industry for the last ten years as so-called the game expert. Only two years ago, I predicted that League of Legends (LoL) would be way ahead of the others in the domestic online video game market for quite some time. And I also expected that Sudden Attack would leave all the other FPS games far behind for a good while. I forecasted that even Sudden Attack 2 couldn't be as good as the original game. Of course, I didn't think that nothing could escape my attention. It's just very embarrassing that the potent argument proved to be wrong in two years.

The best way to enjoy a video game is to play the game oneself. And it's also enjoyable to watch someone playing the game. Plus, there is the pleasure of playing the game with the others. Playing oneself doesn't mean a single-player game mode. It means that the user amuses oneself because there is nobody to play with. As you know, the fun of watching is not only from seeing games of top players in e-sports gaming leagues and tournaments but also learning from them. The pleasure of having together is from "true" offline friendship in the physical world, not from the online universe. Team play amongst close friends is not comparable to teaming up with a stranger in the online world.

What I got exactly wrong was about the pleasure of having together. The key to this enjoyment is based on the universality of the rule. During the holidays, family members can have a good time playing Yunnori, a traditional board game played in Korea, because the participants know the game rules. Likewise, the market power of League of Legends (LoL) or Sudden Attack is from countless customers all around the world who know the rules of the game and are ready to play with. My argument was supported by the fact that it's not easy to draw lots of users who can join in on the fun in a short time.

Overwatch was soon released as if I was ridiculed for my claim. And it proved that the Overwatch-like good game could attract enough users in a short period. The team-based multiplayer first-person shooter has topped the game charts after one month of its release overtaking Sudden Attack, which had maintained No.1 sales in the domestic FPS market over ten years, and League of Legends (LoL), which had been the top-ranked in local game market for several years. I had new kinds of fun with the Blizzard game. It was hope. In recent years, a star hasn't been born in the domestic online game field. New games had disappeared so quickly not stomping on the existing game's parade for a long time, which made me hesitate to invest in an online video game in the market's stagnant atmosphere. However, Overwatch showed that a new game could dominate the market and it is worth putting money in a game company for a new project. I'm very happy about having the pleasant confession because I found hope. I should find out a game developer which can make a game over Overwatch.

 

 

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

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

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui