By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
While movie fans are anxious to see how U.S. moviegoers will respond to the Korean-made fantasy movie ``D-War'' later this month, two big game companies are making similarly bold attempts in the global market this fall by launching blockbuster games tailored for Western audiences.
Like ``D-War'' was produced in Hollywood to cater to the U.S. market, the two new games _ ``Hellgate: London'' from Hanbitsoft and ``Tabula Rasa'' from NCsoft _ are developed by programmers based in California and Texas, respectively, with enormous investment from the Korean firms. The outcome of the two overseas projects will tell whether the Korean firms can take leadership of the game industry.
NCsoft, one of the largest game developers in Korea, said Friday that its six-year-old ``Tabula Rasa'' project will finally coming to fruition around October. It is expected to decide NCsoft's fate for the next few years as the company has paid hundreds million dollars in the much protracted project.
``We are considering selling it in North America and Europe first. We will decide later whether to bring it to South Korea,'' said Yoon Jin-won, spokesman at NCsoft. ``It was developed for the Western gamers from the beginning.''
The game will be available in English, French and German languages. The company refused to reveal the amount of the total investment, but analysts believe the firm has spent around 80 billion won in setting up the Texas team and much more in its operation for the past six years.
The ``Tabula Rasa'' project will also test investors' confidence on the firm's CEO Kim Taek-jin. Kim has been leading the firm's global expansion from early this decade with the money earned mostly from sales of the ``Lineage'' game series in Korea. As ``Lineage'' is gradually losing its popularity, NCsoft's revenue has decreased by 10 percent over the past 12 months.
Hanbitsoft also faces a crucial test with the launching of its ``Hellgate: London.'' The firm is best known as the Korean distributor for the successful computer game ``StarCraft,'' although it has developed small hit games in-house.
The firm is making a heavy bet on ``Hellgate: London'' to become a major player in the global game industry. It said that the amount of its investment may be the largest ever in the Korean game industry.
NCsoft's ``Tabula Rasa'' is led by Richard Garriot, one of the pioneers of the multiplayer online game genre. The leader of the ``Hellgate: London'' team is Bill Roper, another well-known figure in the game industry with his works at U.S. game developer Blizzard.