Kakao joins mobile game race

Kakao Games CEO Namkoong Whon introduces new mobile game “Onmyoji” during a press conference at the Lotte World Mall in Jamsil, Seoul, Tuesday. The company plans to publish the China-made game here in early August. / Courtesy of Kakao

By Yoon Sung-won

Kakao will publish China’s megahit mobile game “Onmyoji” in Korea in early August, the company said Tuesday.

Developed by Chinese firm NetEase Games, “Onmyoji” has been the top grossing mobile game in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, drawing over 200 million downloads globally since its launch last September.

Expectations are that the game will heat up the mobile game competition here this summer alongside Netmarble Games’ “Lineage 2: Revolution” as well as the upcoming NCSOFT’s “Lineage M” and Nexon’s “Dark Avenger 3.”

“Kakao has great expectations for ‘Onmyoji’ in 2017 as we believe the game will offer great entertainment,” Kakao’s game business office manager Chi Seung-heon said during a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday.

Using Japan’s Heian period as its background, “Onmyoji” depicts a story of a shaman and his journey to find his lost memories. In the game, users control the shaman to collect different types of spirits and defeat his enemies.

Kakao stressed that it has pushed to localize the game exclusively for Korean users. In particular, the company is working with over 40 Korean voice actors and actresses to provide Korean-language dubbing.

“We have spent most of the time preparing for text translation and dubbing in Korean,” Kakao’s game publishing business head Lee Si-woo said.

Kakao said the Kakao Talk mobile messenger platform, which has some 40 million users in Korea, helped it win a publishing rights deal for the megahit title from NetEase.

“Tapping into the huge user base of the Kakao Talk platform, we can launch thorough marketing activities to Korean users and we feel this is our unique attraction as a game publisher in Korea,” Kakao’s game business chief Namkoong Whon said.

Rise of Chinese games

Namkoong, a veteran in the domestic game industry, said he was stunned by the rapid growth of China’s game technologies.

“Chinese mobile games have already so improved that they can succeed in any market in the world,” he said. “The rise of Chinese game content of late reminds me of the explosive growth of Korean computer online games of a decade ago.”

Born in 1972, Namkoong has worked at Hangame, NHN Entertainment, CJ Internet and WeMade Entertainment as one of the first-generation members of Korea’s game industry.

Since Namkoong joined Kakao as the CEO of its game business subsidiary Kakao Games in December 2015, the company has aggressively pushed to boost profitability of its game business in a long-term perspective.

Kakao said Monday that it invested about 70 billion won in 22 Korean game development studios last year, which is 22 percent of Kakao’s entire game business sales.

Namkoong said he is interested in the combination of mobile games and new technologies such as augmented reality and virtual reality.

“The rise of a new gaming platform accompanies the rise of a new genre,” he said. “I have great interest in sports games and in the way they would grow once they meet augmented reality and virtual reality technologies.”