South Korean game companies have long been criticized by local media and analysts for failing to gain success beyond Asia.

As of end-2018, the Korean game industry’s exports reached $6.4 billion, 70 percent of which was generated in Asia -- 46.5 percent from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, 14.2 percent from Japan and 10.3 percent from Southeast Asia, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency.

Though pundits reduce the success to a regional one, it would be more accurate to say that Korean game companies choose their battlefields strategically when they seek foreign expansion.

“Exporting games requires a thorough analysis on the target country’s culture and characteristics. As players in different countries enjoy games in different ways, games successful at home aren’t always successful abroad,” said an official from the Korea Creative Content Agency affiliated to the Ministry of Culture.

Aside from the intrinsic appeal, a game’s fate in a certain market could be affected by a mix of cultural, physiological and even political factors, industry insiders said.

Personality match

In the world of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or the MMORPG, personality means a lot. Or more precisely, the match between personality traits of players and their avatars in the game.

That is why Kakao Games, which on Dec. 10 published Elyon, an MMORPG title from local developer Krafton, has purchased publishing rights of the game in North America, Europe and Oceania, further away from familiar markets in Asia.

“The reason Kakao Games is mulling those Western regions as possible candidates for foreign expansion is because Elyon is a ‘herbivorous’ MMORPG,” an industry source said.

“Herbivorous” games form one of the two main categories of MMORPG titles, along with “carnivorous” games.

Herbivorous games offer a relatively serene, relaxing gameplay where users can take on journeys alone and complete quests by themselves. In contrast, carnivorous games offer aggressive, competitive environments where users form groups and engage in battles against each other.

“Though Elyon exhibits some elements of a carnivorous MMORPG, the game is more of a herbivorous game, which makes it more suitable in the West, where individualism is a significant part of culture,” the official said.

Elyon takes place in a fantasy steampunk world where machines and magic rule. In search of new home, adventurers fight to explore, travel and conquer. They take to the sky, riding different airships, vehicles and flying mounts to traverse Elyon’s open, highly vertical world.

Typical Korean MMORPGs fall into the carnivorous category, and their main export market has been Taiwan.

“Taiwanese people band together very well against their rival. Such collectivism makes Taiwan a suitable market for carnivorous Korea MMORPGs as users in both countries are quite similar,” an industry source said. 

NCSoft’s Lineage M, a mobile version of its mega-hit carnivorous MMORPG Lineage, was the most profitable game by revenue for 15 consecutive months on the Google Play Store in Taiwan after its launch in December 2017. As of Nov. 30, it ranked as the No. 1 game by profit again. NCSoft aims to roll out Lineage 2M in the country starting next year.

Netmarble’s A3: Still Alive, an open-world battle royale MMORPG with an extreme multiplayer combat system, was ranked the 32nd most profitable game in Taiwan as of Nov. 30, after its global launch on Nov. 10.


Lure of simplicity

Kakao Games’ Guardian Tales -- a mobile retro action-adventure role-playing game launched worldwide on July 28 -- is another successful game in Taiwan, not because it’s a carnivorous style, but because it’s light. 

Sans flashy graphics, the game can be played on low-spec smartphones, an industry official said.

“As Guardian Tales is created in a dot format, it gives the game a retro vibe as well as a technological advantage.

The dot format makes the game light compared to other mobile games with flashy graphics, giving Guardian Tales a broader user base, regardless of what kind of smartphone they have, the official said.

By addressing hardware issues with a dot-frame design, Guardian Tales is available in 230 countries and is supported in 16 languages.

The game ranked 8th in Taiwan, 39th in Singapore and 50th in Thailand on the Google Play Store, as of Nov. 30.


Heritage runs deep in Japan


Japan has been one of the biggest markets for Korea’s cultural products. But when it comes to games, it is a tough market to crack.

Local companies have fared poorly in the traditional game powerhouse, home to Nintendo and Sony.

NC Japan, a division of NCSoft, suffered a net loss of 14.9 billion won ($13.4 million) last year, after two consecutive failures of its games -- Chrono Brigade and Renshin Astral. Though Lineage M, which launched in the country in May, recorded a daily revenue of about 300 million won, the figure pales against an average daily revenue of 9 billion won in Korea.

“Japan, though right next to Korea, has a very exclusive and individualistic culture, and Korean games might not bode well with them,” an NCSoft official said.

“Also, Japanese users prefer games developed by domestic companies. They already have options, such as the Mario series, that can be played with consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation and the Nintendo Switch.

Netmarble’s Second Country: Cross Worlds, a new game to be released in Korea, Japan and Taiwan in the first quarter of next year, is actually based on the Japanese game series Ni no Kuni.


Diplomacy dictates game’s fate in China 

If Japan is difficult to breach, China has been impossible to penetrate for Korean game companies in recent years.

Not a single Korean game had been issued a license from the Chinese authorities for years. But on Dec. 12, Com2us’ Summoners War: Lost Centuria won a foreign game service license from China‘s National Press and Publication Administration. It was the first such license issued since March 2017.

The news that Com2us was given the green light from Beijing authorities raised hopes here that the virtual ban, placed on Korean games as part of Beijing’s trade retaliations over Seoul’s 2016 decision to deploy a US-led missile defense system, could be ending.

So far, the country has not only limited the entry of Korean games but also prevented the release of already-licensed games.

The release of a mobile edition of Nexon’s flagship title “Dungeon & Fighter” was blocked just one day before the official launch date of Aug. 12 as the Chinese authorities ordered updates to the game’s addiction prevention system. Though the game garnered more than 60 million preregistrations in the country, its release has been postponed indefinitely.

Regarding China’s embargo, some industry officials say China is using the anti-missile defense system dispute as an excuse to keep Korean games in check to restrict the growth of Korean games, which have proven to be highly popular among Chinese users.

Nexon’s subsidiary Neople, which services Dungeon & Fighter, reaped a revenue of 1.3 trillion won and an operating profit of 1.2 trillion won in 2018, recording a staggering operating profit margin of 93 percent. In China alone, the game saw a revenue of 1.2 trillion won. Dungeon & Fighter was licensed and released in the country before the diplomatic rift.

Smilegate’s CrossFire, the most popular first-point shooter game in China, has exceeded a total revenue of 10.5 billion won since its launch in 2007. 

In 2018, the Korean game industry’s export amount to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan plunged 12.7 percent on-year to $2.9 billion. Despite China’s implicit ban, the Korean government retained its open-market policy, allowing the three countries to export $72.8 million worth of game content to Korea, a 7.8 percent increase in the same period.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)