Korean games crack the console market

Games developed in Korea are sweeping global markets, even beating Japanese game developers, who have led the global market for decades, on their own turf. Softmax, the developer of Magnacarta, a role-playing game, said the game’s Play Station version ranked No. 1 in sales in Japan within a few days of its debut, according to Sony’s official Play Station 2 Web site. It is the first time that a non-online Korean game has taken the top spot in Japan. Magnacarta was also given high marks recently from a prominent game magazine in Japan, Weekly Famitusu, which is known for its strict evaluations, Softmax said. The game developer is currently focusing on aggressive marketing in Japan, including television commercials; it expects sales to reach over 200,000 games within this year. Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, a real-time strategy fantasy game, developed by Phantagram and released on Oct. 29 in 14 European countries, including Britain and France, is sweeping the top ranks in Xbox games. Kingdom Under Fire was ranked second in sales at Macromania, the largest game store in France, and ranked eighth in sales by the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association, a game organization in Britain. The strategy game, which was released in North America 10 days earlier than in Europe, ranked fifth in sales at EB Games, the largest game store in North America. “The success of these games has proven the fact that non-online Korean games can actually reach out to mainstream gamers,” said an industry source. “This will help the Korean game industry diversify its investments, which were previously concentrated exclusively in online games,” the source added. Most games developed here have been online games, rather than console games for systems like Play Station 2 and X Box, which are the formats preferred in most overseas markets. by Lee Ho-jeong