South Korea (Part 1): The actions of traditional gaming giants
1. Korean game market and blockchain game development process
1. Why choose the Korean game market?
The market value of the Korean game industry currently ranks fourth in the world, with the top three being the United States, China, and Japan. However, as the origin of e-sports culture and industry, South Korea has a unique environment for game development. The prosperity of South Korea's gaming field is inseparable from the enthusiasm of citizens and players for gaming, which we call the cultural value bonus. In addition, South Korea’s gaming infrastructure: such as Internet cafes, high-speed and stable network connections, and developed mobile phone manufacturing industries. The above points are all catalysts for game development. Some of the games with the highest citizen participation include League of Legends, Overwatch, FIFA Online, etc.
2. Overview of Korean game industry
According to the content of the "2019 Korean Game White Paper", the scale of the domestic game market in South Korea has continued to grow from 2009 to 2018. Except for a slight downward trend in 2013 (a year-on-year decrease of 0.3%), it has maintained a continuous growth momentum since then.
The market size of mobile games exceeded PC games for the first time in 2017. In 2018, the sales revenue of the mobile game market reached 6,655.8 billion won, accounting for 46.6% of the sales revenue of the entire game industry. The sales revenue of PC games was 5,023.6 billion won, accounting for 35.1% of the sales revenue of the entire game industry.
The sales revenue of console games was 528.5 billion won, accounting for 3.7% of the total game industry sales revenue from 2.8% in 2017. According to market research, about 50% of Korean citizens play games on their mobile phones.
As a country of origin of e-sports, South Korea has a unique branch of the gaming field that cannot be ignored, including e-sports teams and game live broadcasts. This feature has some differences with the traditional game field, and also represents the trend of the advanced game field.
3. Prospects from traditional games to blockchain games
With the rapid development of blockchain technology and applications and the rise of blockchain games, based on the above-mentioned strong evidence supported by data, we began to turn our attention to local game manufacturing giants and their progress in marching into blockchain.
Based on 4 criteria, we selected the top ten game companies in South Korea as of the beginning of 2022, as well as their development and prospects for blockchain:
1.Funding (capital accumulation)
Market Opportunity
The innovation of service or product (degree of product innovation)
Growth Potential/Scalability (potential growth space)
2. The top 10 gaming companies in South Korea and the development process of the blockchain field
1. Overall illustration
2.Project details
• Nexon Korea: Market cap 27 billion
Nexon Co., Ltd. was founded in 1994. It is a Japanese computer game operating company controlled by South Korea's NXC. Its group's game development is mainly undertaken by the original group company Nexon Korea. Its subsidiaries are Nexon America Inc, Boolean Games
(1) Main business: competitive, RPG online games
(2) Representative works: "Dungeon and Fighter", "Kart Run", "MapleStory" and other online games
(3) Development in the blockchain field:
i acquires $100 million in BTC
i. The parent company announced at the end of 2021 that it would eventually accept cryptocurrency as payment for in-game assets.
ii There are currently no blockchain games under development announced.
• NCSoft: Market value 20 billion
Eunbu Software Linshi Co., Ltd. is a Korean online game company. It was established on March 11, 1997. Its main development direction is massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Headquartered in Seoul, it has subsidiaries and joint ventures in the United States, Europe and many Asian countries. Also owns the Korean Professional Baseball NC Dinosaurs
(1) Main business: RPG games
(2) Representative works: "Lineage" series of games, "Blade and Soul", "Aion" and "Guild Wars" series of games
Game companies are in the retirement stage, with a market value loss of US$3.7 billion last year.
(3) Development in the blockchain field
NFT based MMORPG game to be launched in 2022
•Netmarble: Market value 10 billion
Netmarble is a company that develops and publishes video games. It was founded by Junma Fang in 2000 and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It has more than 5,000 employees. In 2004, it reached a cooperation plan with CJE&M and became a subsidiary of CJE&M.
(1) Main business: mobile games, Marvel series, competitive games
(2) Representative works: "Marvel's Endgame", "The Seven Deadly Sins" series, "The King of Fighters: All-Stars", "Seven Knights"
(3) Development in the blockchain field
In 2022, it announced the creation of its own game platform MBX to launch 6 P2E games. The MBX platform will be based on the Klaytn key, and $MBX will be the MBX platform token.
•Kraftoon Game Union: Market value 9 billion, South Korea’s Blue Hole Studio later changed its name to Kraftoon
Headquartered in Bundang-gu, Seongnam City, it is named after the style of KRAFTON and was formerly known as Bluchole. The company was founded in Seoul in March 2007 by Chang Byunggyu and is known for developing TERA, PUBG: Battlegrounds and NEW STATE MOBILE through its subsidiary PUBG Studios
1) Main business: RPG online games
(2) Representative works: "PUBG" (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds), "Terra" (War of Gods), "Eyelon" (Roian)
(3) Blockchain development plan
i. Reached cooperation with Solana Lab in March 2022, and determined the subsequent blockchain game development platform to be Solana
ii. Participate in investment in Korean local chain game projects such as “KlayDice”
•Pearl Abyss: Market value 3.2 billion
Jane Abbys is a South Korean video game developer and publisher founded in 2010.
The company is known for its cross-platform massively multiplayer online role-playing game Black Desert and the upcoming open world
Action-adventure game "Red Desert"
(1) Main business: massively multiplayer online RPG online games and fighting games.
(2) Representative works: "Black Sandhan", "Red Desert", "Shadow Arena" and "EVE Onlinex"
(3) Blockchain development plan
Has started developing BlackSpace Engine, NFT and Metaverse Engine
• Gameevil Comezus: Market value 2 billion, listed on the US stock market
Com2uS Holdings is a publicly traded company based in Seoul, Republic of Korea and Torrance, California that develops and publishes video games for mobile devices. On October 4, 2013, it acquired one of its main competitors, Com2us
Gameevil itself has more than 5 million mobile downloads and acquired its competitor Come2us in 2013.
(1) Main business: RPG adventure games, stand-alone games
(2) Representative works: "Zenonia" (Zenonia series), "Baseball Star Dream" series, and Come2us' masterpiece "Summoners War" (approximately 100 million downloads)
(3) Blockchain development
i. Reach cooperation with the Terra ecosystem to build the future game ecosystem on the Terra chain. The C2X plan will issue NFTs and tokens in the future.
ii. Reach cooperation with TIKITAKA CrOP, RPGRepublic Co. Ltd, DAERISOFT.
iii. Invested US$28 million in South Korean exchange Coinone
iv. Make the traditional game "Summoners War" into a chain game version, a placement card strategy game.
Will be launched in 2022
• Gravity: Market value 1.2 billion, listed on the US stock market
Gravity Co., Ltd. is a Korean video game company established in 2000.
Mainly known for developing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Ragnarok"
(1) Main business: massively multiplayer online RPG online games
(2) Representative work: "Ragnarok" series (Ragnarok)
(3) Development in the blockchain field
Reached cooperation with OnBuff, an American blockchain studio, to produce a chain game version of the "Ragnarok" game. The game was launched on April 27, 2022, with more than 1 million downloads and more than 700,000 registered users.
•Webzen: Market value 1.2 billion
Netshen, the full name of Netshen Global Digital Technology Co., Ltd., is a South Korean electronic game company founded in 2000, represented by the online game "Miracle"
(1) Main business: large-scale role-playing games, action games, mobile games
(2) Representative work: "Miracle MU" series
(3) Blockchain development
In December 2021, it announced plans to develop NFT, VR and Metaverse scenarios. There is no news about chain games yet
• Smilegate: Market cap 1 billion
Founded in South Korea in 2002, the company behind CrossFire is the world's top online FPS game with over 6 million fellow players worldwide. Subsidiaries We Made
Famous products include the "Legend" series of online games
(1) Main business: multiplayer large-scale online RPG online games, action online games
(2) Representative works: "Crossfire", "Lost Ark"
(3) Blockchain development
i conducted an ICO in 2018. Cooperate with Korean public chain ICX
ii The subsequent revision and cooperation of chain games will be carried out in 2022
• Doubleu Games: Market cap 1 billion
Founded in 2012, it mainly produces various types of casino games
(1) Main business: social online games, casino games, casual games
(2) 代表作: 《Casino Slot Games》, 《Double U Bingo》, 《Double U Casino》
(3) Blockchain development
Invests $1.5 million in Epic Games