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| A poster for "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" / Courtesy of Bluehole |
By Yoon Sung-won
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| Kim Chang-han, executive producer of the Bluehole's "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds project," right, and Bluehole's business department director Brady Choi speak during an interview at the company's office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Courtesy of Bluehole |
Bluehole is pushing to develop a computer online game "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" when many others are rushing more into the mobile sector.
"Battlegrounds" is a survival shooting game -- a genre that is unfamiliar in Korea. The project team is made up of 35 multinational developers based around the world. The game does not even have a free-to-play earnings model, while most Korean game firms use advertizing to maximize profit.
The game, however, has already started to surprise the global game industry with unexpected achievements. It became the best-selling game on the world's largest online game distribution platform, Steam, less than a week after its March 24 prerelease. The game has drawn favorable responses from users especially in North America, Europe and China where Steam's user base is strong.
It also ranks No. 1 on the world's top video game livestreaming service Twitch in terms of the number of users as of March 29. On March 27, Bluehole said "Battlegrounds" recorded $11 million in three days, selling more than 400,000 $29.99 packages.
Kim Chang-han, the executive producer of the "Playerunknown's Battlegrounds" project, said the management philosophy of Bluehole's decision makers weighs the "fun factor" in a game, among others, and has backed the project.
"My goal is to make a game with fun factors at its core. Once I make it, numerical success will follow," Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "The executives have never urged producers to come up with a way to milk money from a game."
Kim is a veteran game developer who acquired his master's and doctoral degrees in computer science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He started his career in the game development industry here in 2000. He was chief technology officer at Ginno Games until 2015 when Bluehole acquired the firm.
Established in 2007, Bluehole gained fame by releasing the online role-playing game "Tera" in 2011. Six years later the game still has 25 million users around the world.
Kim expressed regret over Korean users' negative perceptions of home-produced games.
"The excessive pursuit of short-term profits is the reason for such negative perceptions," he said. "But successful foreign games like League of Legends and Overwatch focus more on entertainment. I believe investing more on the essence will give us greater success even though it will take more time."
Bluehole's business department director Brady Choi stressed that the company will not sell in-game items that can break the balance between users.
"The game will not have the pay-to-win business model," Choi said. "We may sell some decorations for characters or weapons. But we won't consider selling items that can influence victory or defeat in the game."
In "Battlegrounds," each user becomes one of 100 players on an island. The goal of the game is simply to survive until the end in a battle royale by all means.
Kim invited developer Brendan Greene, who is also known by his nickname "Playerunknown," as creative director for the project. Greene has built up a reputation as a pioneer of the last-man standing modification for many other shooter games.
"The game came from the combination of Greene's experience and know-how in the battle royale genre and our game development capabilities," he said.
Kim said the decision to open up the game in the early stages was another factor for its success.
"What I've learned in the last 17 years in the industry is the importance of early failure," he said. "By opening a game in its early stage of development to the users, we can communicate with user communities to grasp problems as early as possible."
Bluehole is testing the "Battlegrounds" in its paid playable beta version under Steam's "early access" policy. The company plans to launch the official version in summer. The game will be available not only on computers but also on Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, he said.
Kim said private game streamers are also a main driving force of the game's popularity. At Twitch, it has drawn more than 150,000 viewers watching livestreams of the game. Over 1,500 private streamers are airing their play of "Battlegrounds." He said the company plans to continue tapping into online streaming services as the game's main promotion channel.
"Battlegrounds" still needs improvements. In particular, its unstable server connection and system optimization were on the lips of critics. Choi said the company will expedite the fine-polishing process of the game.
"The unexpectedly favorable response makes us feel more responsible in stabilizing the game service as soon as possible," he said. "We pledge to work hard to meet expectations."
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