Korean Game Industry

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This is a group for discussion, networking and learning focused on the Korean Game Industry.

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Latest Activity: Apr 4

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About the Korean Game Industry

Logo image from KartRider, © Nexon 2004

Brief history of the Korean Game Industry

1. The early birth (from 1970's to the 1990's)

Korean game developing history starts in the late 1970s, when arcade machines and computers started to be imported from countries like Japan or the US.

During the 80s and 90s, there was a steadily growing community of game developers, like Mirinae Software, doing games either for computers (specially MSX, mimicking it's success in Japan) or Japanese consoles distributed by Korean companies. Nintendo consoles were manufactured by Hyundai (현대), SEGA by Samsung (삼성) and NEC by Daewoo (대우). In the late 90s, Japanese firms established themselves in Korea, thus ending those distribution contrats.

2. The Starcraft revolution (from 1998 to mid-2000's)

In 1998, Starcraft, a real-time strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, became really popular among Korean youths, so much that it has become almost part of Korea's culture. As of today, 4.5 million copies (out of 9.5 worlwide) were sold in South Korea only.

The Starcraft hype gave birth to the professional gaming leagues, which in time developed into a gaming Olympics event called the World Cyber Games. It was also the starting point for a type of small business in Korea, the PC방 (like cybercafés), which were seen as a very profitable model by enterpreneurs who lost their old jobs after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

There is not one but two cable television channels holding leagues and broadcasting matches between pro gamers which are seen by millions of fans. There are also live matches in specially built stadiums, which sometimes draw as many as 100,000 people.

Currently there are 10 professional gaming teams in Korea, 9 of which are sponsored by corporations, and the remaining team by the Korean Air Force.

3. Dominating the online game market (2000's)

Seeing the massive hit of Starcraft's online mode, many Korean companies started to develop their own online games. After the early hits, like NEXON's "NEXUS: The Kingdom of the Winds" (바람의 나라), NCSoft's "Lineage" (리니지) or Gravity's "Ragnarok Online" (라그나로크 온라인), the industry started to win an international reputation in the online game sector. As of 2010, online games represent 73% of the game market in Korea.

Today Korea is one of the largest producers of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, with more than 37% of the entire world market. The game industry in Korea is today the largest and fastest growing of all it's cultural industries, even more than broadcasting or publishing, amounting to 14,5 trillion 원 (won) or $5.9 billion in 2009 according to an Analysis Report by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).

Since the introduction of the iPhone and Android smartphones, there has been a fast growing number of mobile game developers, which have quickly taken a 10% share of the game market.

In Korea's high tech driven society, these two sectors have easily kicked console video games and PC games, which together represent less than 15% of the market, and have very small growth rates.

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Where can I read the latest Korean Game Industry news?

English Language Websites

Korean Language Websites

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How can I get in touch with the Korean Game Industry?

Korean Game Industry Institutions

Korean Game Developers Institutions

Korean e-Sports Institutions

Korean Game Trade Shows

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Comment by Guzmán Díaz on October 21, 2011 at 2:35pm: Three weeks left for G-Star 2011, the leading event in video games in Korea and Asia!

http://www.koreabusinesscentral.com/group/koreangameindustry/forum/...

Comment by Eun-Shil Park on August 17, 2011 at 4:16pm: http://www.koreabusinesscentral.com/forum/topics/looking-for-an-intern for an intern in Mobile Games Industry (PR&Marketing).

Comment by Pilar Perez-McKay on August 16, 2011 at 8:12am: Hello Guzman,

.... have you tried Card Hunter?

http://www.cardhunter.com/game-info/

Comment by Brian on August 2, 2011 at 6:56pm: Anyone know about buying FIFA 12 for PS3 in Seoul? EA Korea site only lists for PC. And i'm guessing it's not possible to pre-order Star Wars: The Old Republic from Korea?

Comment by Guzmán Díaz on July 28, 2011 at 3:42am: Thanks for sharing that conference with us Pilar! :)

Right now we're in the middle of ChinaJoy, so many news and business deals will show up in the following days. You can read an interview with Jake Song, CEO of XL Games (and before that, creator of Lineage) at MMO Culture.

Comment by Pilar Perez-McKay on July 25, 2011 at 11:28pm: Conference in Seoul that may be of interest.......

2011 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games

August 31-September 3

COEX

http://cilab.sejong.ac.kr/cig2011/

Comment by Guzmán Díaz on July 13, 2011 at 11:36pm: Thanks Steve! Nice interview even though it was a bit short. I'm glad to see we have Jason on our community :)

Additionally, for those involved in game development, Unity Korea are holding a developers conference the 25th of July. Check it out here.

Comment by Steven S. Bammel on July 8, 2011 at 11:39am: We've got a brand new relay interview on KBC with Jason Hwang, who works on the Overseas Business Development Team at Nexon. Not only that, his English and Korean are both perfect, and the interview is presented in both English and Korean, so this is your chance to "ask an expert" about the Korean gaming business! Check it out here: http://www.koreabusinesscentral.com/forum/topics/2011nyeon-7ngwor-7... and leave a comment or question.

Comment by Eun-Shil Park on June 25, 2011 at 6:03pm: Your Administrator has done something which turned out an extremely painful experience....she did her first SoapBox on our frontpage. And she can tell you all she really hates it to be in front of a camera (yes ! I am the person who takes the pictures on parties in order to hide herself;-)

So dear members.....your turn now! Any Korea related topic is ok for the SoapBox....and it can never be that bad.....

Comment by Guzmán Díaz on June 21, 2011 at 12:24am: Thanks for the advice Steve, I didn't notice that. For now I'll keep readying it on my website, since there is still some content to fill. Once I finish doing that I will post different pages with all the resources :)