Korea Rising: the East goes West
The CMP games-flagship site Gamasutra has up a Massive article about the state of Korean gaming, which basically means it's almost entirely about online titles. Journalist Brandon Sheffield sat down for a chat with some of the biggest names in Korean gaming for the piece, and comes away with fascinating analysis of the Eastern push West. Big names he talks to include Nexon's (MapleStory, KartRider) international business development manager Stephen Lee and Webzen's (Huxley) development strategy manager of global studios, Sang Woon Yoon.
If you had any notions that the increasingly visible influence of eastern-style online games was going to be lessened in 2008, think again. Every person Sheffield interviews has big plans for the US and EU markets, from a port of MapleStory for the DS to big 'next-gen' console expansion plans in Korea and beyond.
Most interestingly, it looks as though the more Korean developers push into these markets, the more they're adapting to the local climate: [Webzen's Sang Woon Yoon] observes that though the Korean market is lucrative due to its high number of online users, the packaged software market in the U.S. allows Webzen to "...calculate ROI easier than online games. Also the next-generation consoles like the 360 shows great graphics, and a lot of CPU power... We have no choice but to go for those," noting, "We can't really push for the Korean way. In America, it just doesn't work."
