By Cho Mu-hyun
Small domestic game developers are struggling to find export routes but they will soon be helped from a state-run agency and Japanese game publisher Gree.
The Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) said Wednesday that it signed an agreement to aid Korean developers. KOCCA President Hong Sang-pyo met with Gree’s Asia Pacific business head Amano Yuske in Seoul and the latter agreed to publish mobile games by Korean developers in Japan.
The government agency has chosen 36 developers with rich content to branch out overseas such as Gamevil, COM2US, PictoSoft. All of them recently gained popularity in the local market.
KOCCA plans to pick more domestic firms next year with all their games published by Gree in Japan. The publisher is known globally for its popular mobile and social game platforms.
The agency hopes that the support of the publishing firm will benefit Korea’s small game makers in the mid- to long-term.
“This MOU signifies that Gree, which manages one of the best mobile and social game platforms in the world, recognizes Korean mobile games’ technological competiveness,” said Hong. “We plan to expand government-backed content exports to other foreign markets besides Japan.”
Yuske said he was happy to collaborate with KOCCA to provide Japanese users with quality content from Korea. He added that he hoped the agreement would vitalize the world content market.
The government agency’s recent focus has been opening more channels for creative businesses in entertainment, film and games industries to expand outside of Korea.
Promoting games has been one of its top priorities in recent years as the industry has grown tremendously.
It supervised the G-Star 2012 international game tradeshow held in Busan last month. It signed an agreement with United Arab Emirates’ publisher Tahadi Games during the event to export Korean games there.
To facilitate the growth of the industry in the local market, it held a job fair in October to put more talented young people in small- and mid-sized game makers. It also runs a game of the month event and gives awards to popular games, especially mobile titles, which are fast growing.
It is currently planning three separate public announcements in Seoul, Dajeon and Busan of its investment plans for 2013.