Game firms seeking breakthrough with new games this year
“The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon” that Nexon plans to launch this year / Courtesy of Nexon
By Jun Ji-hye
Game companies here are striving to develop and release potential blockbuster game titles this year in a bid to find a breakthrough in the stagnant game industry and boost their bottom line, company officials said Sunday.
In particular, companies are utilizing their most popular characters when developing new games to ensure their success, as games such as NCSOFT's “Lineage M” and “Lineage 2M” have been hugely popular with consumers.
Nexon has announced a plan to utilize both new and existing intellectual property (IP) in developing new games this year in an effort to secure stable sources of revenue.
At the same time, the nation's leading game developer and publisher has aligned its organization to focus on games with higher growth potential and nurture them as its future growth engines.
Nexon is looking to launch mobile titles such as “The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon” and “Dungeon Fighter Mobile” within the year, hoping to attract fans of its intellectual property.
The company is also preparing to launch games based on new intellectual property, such as mobile role-playing game (RPG) “Counterside” and third-person shooter “KurtzPel,” developed by KOG, this year.
“Nexon will continue to enhance its competitiveness by establishing systems in which each development unit can create synergy,” Nexon Korea CEO Lee Jung-hun said in explaining the firm's reshuffle carried out at the end of last year.
Netmarble is preparing to launch “A3: Still Alive,” a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) which will offer a glimpse of the mobile battle royale game, within the first quarter of the year.
Other games that the company is scheduled to launch this year include “Magic: ManaStrike” and “Seven Knights Revolution,” a MMORPG that builds on the firm's popular game, “Seven Knights.”
NCSOFT is seeking to utilize its “Blade & Soul” IP, planning to launch “Blade & Soul 2” and “Blade & Soul S” in the domestic and overseas markets, respectively.
WeMade is moving to use its popular “the Legend of Mir 2” IP to launch “Mir 4,” “Mir W” and “Mir M.” Among the three new games, the company is planning to launch “Mir 4” within the first half of the year.
Game companies are focusing on nurturing new IPs and expanding existing ones as influential game characters directly lead to their sales in the long term.
“Popular IPs already have fans, thus games based on such IPs can easily attract users. This also helps game companies save on marketing costs,” an official from a Seongnam-based game company said.