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Blizzard and Flagship are Killing Local Korean Games
14th Feb 2008 03:37 PM GMT | Leord | 7 comments
Korea is one of the world's most active PC gaming countries, where Starcraft is the national sport, and gamers acclaim the same type of fame that Western athletes or movie stars get. However, they are having problems with the fact that imported games are the biggest pull, and native game developers have a hard time to get a foot in. Two games from Blizzard: StarCraft (the original, and BroodWars, the expansion) and World of WarCraft, have enjoyed undying popularity here. Most recently, HanbitSoft imported Hellgate: London from the United States, which is now ranked ninth.
So, despite its stumbling launch in US/EU/Singapore, Flagship still manages to reap some success with Hellgate: London, albeit at the expense of the local games flora.
Info from Gamechart.co.kr and Koreatimes.co.kr.
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Comments
152 days ago
DogZ is by Ubisoft
Good for casual and hardcore alike = watered down crap, like the games you mentioned. Nintendo has their "Casual Games" and they have their "Hardcore Games" separated, with the market perspective of "graduating" their casuals to core.
And if you'd like to make a comment of Nintendo's core games, keep in mind their average critic score rating, here's a list made up by EA games 5 days ago.
Good for casual and hardcore alike = watered down crap, like the games you mentioned. Nintendo has their "Casual Games" and they have their "Hardcore Games" separated, with the market perspective of "graduating" their casuals to core.
And if you'd like to make a comment of Nintendo's core games, keep in mind their average critic score rating, here's a list made up by EA games 5 days ago.
155 days ago
yeah, but that means when there's only 2500 people total playing the game, then theres only like 200 of those people or some other small fraction playing hc elite. so its far less crowded, especially in terms of numbers of parties to join/people in the stations, etc.
155 days ago
I didn't think the population count was seperated? Isn't it just, there are X people online across all the modes?
155 days ago
which turns into far less people if you are playing elite/hc
156 days ago
I wonder what the server population is on the Koren server. It's a jokingly low on the US one at 2500.
156 days ago
.................................................. that statement containing the word "killing local" is a joke.... right?
Starcraft has 11%, Wow has 6%, wc3 has 6%, hgl has 3%. If you add them all up that's 27%, that's about a quarter of the market. A respectable portion? Yes, very much so, Blizzard has a lot of respect from korean developers. Dominiant or "killer?" Hardly. Now just think, what are the rest of the 73% of the players playing? Can you name even 5 titles? If not, then you don't know enough about Kr. gaming to make criticisms about that market.
Also, Korean developers make GREAT games. They have been doing much better than ALL OF THE JAPANESE DEVELOPERS COMBINED in their respective homelands. The casual market that Nintendo have wet dream about? Korean casual penetration is higher than Jap can ever dream of. Plus, korean developers did it while making real games (Gunbound, MapleStory, Flyff, etc.) good for casual and hardcore alike, not virtual toys like Wii Fit, or cheap shots like Brain Age and DogZ.
Starcraft has 11%, Wow has 6%, wc3 has 6%, hgl has 3%. If you add them all up that's 27%, that's about a quarter of the market. A respectable portion? Yes, very much so, Blizzard has a lot of respect from korean developers. Dominiant or "killer?" Hardly. Now just think, what are the rest of the 73% of the players playing? Can you name even 5 titles? If not, then you don't know enough about Kr. gaming to make criticisms about that market.
Also, Korean developers make GREAT games. They have been doing much better than ALL OF THE JAPANESE DEVELOPERS COMBINED in their respective homelands. The casual market that Nintendo have wet dream about? Korean casual penetration is higher than Jap can ever dream of. Plus, korean developers did it while making real games (Gunbound, MapleStory, Flyff, etc.) good for casual and hardcore alike, not virtual toys like Wii Fit, or cheap shots like Brain Age and DogZ.
156 days ago
Maybe if the Koreans stopped making crap games they'd enjoy more success? 
HGL did okay at launch in US/EU/SEA? If it's still ninth in Korea after six months, that's more of an issue for Korean game devs?
HGL did okay at launch in US/EU/SEA? If it's still ninth in Korea after six months, that's more of an issue for Korean game devs?
