Nexon's "Bishoujo Game" Gamble... Korea-China-Japan Showdown [Buaeri's Game Dictionary]

"The subculture genre is rapidly growing not only in the domestic market but also globally, becoming a major pillar of the mobile game genre." - Lee Jung-heon, CEO of Nexon Korea

This year, Nexon, which had been quiet, has placed a bet on the 'subculture' genre. Nexon will release the new subculture title 'Blue Archive' next month. Subculture games are those where users raise or collect bishoujo (beautiful girl) characters. Although once considered a niche genre, recently these games have evolved beyond simple character collection by incorporating various elements such as racing and fighting, gradually becoming more mainstream.

Nexon's 'Blue Archive' is a character role-playing game (RPG) where users lead students from various academies to solve incidents occurring in the city. Blue Archive is also attracting attention from subculture game users both domestically and globally. It gathered 500,000 pre-registrations within a day. It is also doing well in Japan, the birthplace of subculture games, receiving favorable reviews. After its release in Japan last February, it ranked first in popularity on the two major markets and secured a top position in sales.

However, competition in the subculture game market is fierce. Recently, not only Japan, the homeland of subculture, but also Korean and Chinese game companies are fiercely competing for the subculture throne. Especially, the momentum of Chinese companies is formidable. Chinese-developed games like 'Girls' Frontline' and miHoYo's 'Genshin Impact' have gained popularity. In particular, 'Genshin Impact' had a significant influence domestically as well, pushing NCSoft's Lineage 2M out of the top spot in Google Play's game revenue rankings last month. The wildly popular Japanese game 'Uma Musume Pretty Derby' is also entering the domestic market through Kakao Games.

Compared to large-scale massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), subculture is a genre that can generate profits with relatively lower development costs. Moreover, it has an enthusiastic fanbase, making it a cost-effective market.

There is also interest in whether Nexon, which has not shown notable achievements this year compared to last year, will seek new opportunities through the subculture genre. Nexon's third-quarter earnings forecast is sales of 65.4 billion to 71.5 billion yen (6.774 trillion to 7.411 trillion KRW) and operating profit of 20.1 billion to 25.3 billion yen (2.081 trillion to 2.622 trillion KRW). This represents a decrease of 10-18% in sales and 8-27% in operating profit compared to the previous year. CEO Lee stated, "With the high-quality gameplay unique to Blue Archive, it can become the next-generation subculture collection RPG."

Editor's Note
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This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.