Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Nexon, NCSOFT vie for market lead with new games
Nexon's mobile role-playing game "V4" / Courtesy of Nexon
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
Nexon is waging a war against NCSOFT with its new mobile game “V4” seeking to steal the lead position in the country's mobile game market which has been monopolized by the latter with its role-playing game (RPG) “Lineage M.”
The company said Thursday that since its launch, “V4” has succeeded in drawing gamers' attention, being ranked top on Apple's App Store.
However, it remains to be seen whether Nexon can retain such a positive response as its arch rival NCSOFT is also set to release its new mobile RPG, “Lineage 2M,” Nov. 27.
Analysts said both Nexon, which failed to draw attention with its most recent game “Traha” in the first half of 2019 and NCSOFT, which hasn't released any new games this year, are expected to boost their profit margins with their new offerings.
Nexon is betting big on “V4” as the RPG was developed by affiliate NAT Games, which is known for producing the popular games “HIT” and “Overhit.”
Park Yong-hyun, CEO of NAT Games guaranteed the new mobile game will be able to deliver the “true value of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.”
The key difference between "V4" and other RPGs is that it allows users to interact with others who are on different servers, while other games only enable users to play with gamers on the same server.
To commemorate the launch of “V4,” Nexon will conduct free giveaway events until Dec. 1. Those who log in to create characters for “V4,” can enter a raffle to win prizes such as an iPhone 11 and a round-trip ticket to Hawaii.
NCSOFT's upcoming mobile role-playing game "Lineage 2M" / Courtesy of NCSOFT
To turn gamers' eyes away from “V4,” NCSOFT made two announcements. On Wednesday, it said it will launch “Lineage 2M,” a mobile version of its popular PC game “Lineage 2,” Nov. 27 and offered mass updates of “Lineage M,” Thursday.
“Lineage M” has been the most profitable game in Korea, leading the top-grossing chart of the Google Play app store since its launch in 2017.
NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin expressed high confidence for the success of “Lineage 2M,” saying, “No other games will be able to catch up to the technological level of Lineage 2M for years to come."
Hwang Hyun-joon, an analyst at DB Financial Investment, presumed “the global sales revenue of Lineage 2M is expected to reach 700 billion won ($604 million) in 2020, helping the company boost its profit margin."