South Korea's games target growth
Published: 25 Jun 2004 14:30 BST
"The Kundun has the ability to manipulate humans and prevent them from working together," Kim explained, with a straight face. "We have to kill the Kundun to save the universe."
Webzen and Gravity see other opportunities in the United States, including the development of their PC games for video consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox. Announcements on console deals or new games may come at next year's E3 game industry convention in Los Angeles.
Still, few companies have succeeded in making a regional multiplayer game into an international hit. South Korea's NCsoft tried, without huge success, to market its medieval melodrama "Lineage" game in the West. Similarly, sceptics routinely cite Sony Online Entertainment and its EverQuest flop in Asia as a cautionary tale.
Online games "are difficult to pull off. They are expensive, and you have to continue to build new content and build back-end billing systems," said Schelley Olhava, an analyst at research firm IDC. "The number of people playing these games is limited."
In the United States, online games will account for $650m in revenue this year. But subscription revenue, which includes fantasy games and services that provide traditional games like "Hearts," will account for $355m of the total. One important factor in the equation is bandwidth; broadband, which is a must for graphics-intensive online games, is not nearly as pervasive in the United States or Europe as it is in South Korea and other parts of Asia.
In addition, game companies face the perennial challenge of keeping their products fresh and challenging. For "Mu" alone, nearly 200 designers insert minor additions to the game on a weekly basis. Major upgrades occur every three months.
"There are new weapons, new monsters," Webzen's Kim said. This summer, players will be asked to join one of two castles and enter into a massive battle.
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SK's government support of broadband penetration h... Kikki Bona Sijabat
