Foreign Online Games to Hit Korea

By Cho Jin-seo

Staff Reporter

A wave of U.S. and Japanese blockbuster online computer games will hit South Korea this year, threatening the long-run popularity of locally made games.

About a dozen foreign games, including Blizzard Entertainment's ``Starcraft 2'' and Electronic Arts' ``Lord of the Rings Online'' are expected to begin service this year, dubbed in the Korean language. They will be competing with Korean games such as ``Lineage'' from NCsoft, ``Maple Story'' from Nexon and NHN Games' ``Dungeon & Fighter.''

The sudden surge of online game imports is the result of major game publishers' diversification strategy, as they began to reduce the financial risks in developing games themselves. The online game market has almost stopped growing from last year with some 20 million already enjoying games at home, in their offices or at Internet cafes, and firms have struggled to make profits from their investment in developing original products, which sometimes cost tens of billions of won.

``This year, the online game industry's motto is risk management,'' said Jung Wook, the chief of NHN's online game operations, in an industry conference last month. ``Competition will get tougher, and growth will stall. The move to import foreign-made blockbuster games will accelerate this year,'' he said.

Korea is one of the leading nations in the so-called MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) sector. Firms like Nexon and NCsoft have prospered on the popularity of those games, which are played at Internet cafes across the nation.

Local game developers, however, have failed to produce hit games over the past few years, while old games such as ``Lineage'' continue to win the market. At the same time, foreign games have been increasingly faring well in Korea. Two games from Blizzard, ``StarCraft'' and ``World of WarCraft,'' have enjoyed undying popularity here. Most recently, Hanbit Soft imported ``Hellgate: London'' from the United States, which is now ranked ninth at Gamechart.co.kr.

Following the successful debut of ``Hellgate'' in Korea by Hanbit, Nexon is planning to launch ``Counter Strike Online,'' a popular shooter game, in the first half of the year. Neowiz is to start Korean language services of ``Battlefield Online,'' another point-and-shoot game, and ``NBA Street Online,'' a basketball game, from Electronics Arts. NHN, the largest Internet company in Korea, last year purchased the local service license of ``Lord of the Rings Online'' from U.S. game studio Turbine.

Meanwhile, CJ Internet is focusing on importing Japanese games, such as ``Dynasty Warriors,'' which sold 15 million copies in Japan, and ``Dragon Ball Online,'' a reincarnation of the famous Japanese animation.

Many in the local game industry have worried that the influx of foreign-made games may kill small studios in Korea. But there are other views as well. Kim Young-man, CEO of Hanbit, said that globalization is an irreversible trend in the gaming industry as well, and firms should try to take advantage of it more actively.

``Separating Korean and foreign games has little meaning these days, because many firms do global businesses by partnering with foreign firms or by securing intellectual property rights for big games,'' he said in a meeting of CEOs of major game firms with Lee Kyung-sook, chairwoman of the Presidential Transition Committee. ``It is time for Korean firms to create global standards,'' he said.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr