[Featured Stock] Neowiz Shows Signs of Success in 86 Trillion Console Market... Commercial Potential Recognized Abroad First

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] While the domestic stock market is plummeting, Neowiz's stock price is soaring. It appears that the news of Neowiz's console game in development, 'P-ui Geojit' (The Lie of P), winning three awards at the 'Gamescom Awards' held in Germany is influencing the stock price. The game was selected as the 'Most Anticipated PlayStation Game,' 'Best Action Adventure Game,' and 'Best Role-Playing Game.' This is the first time a console game developed by a Korean game company has won three awards.

As of 2:12 PM on the 29th, Neowiz is trading at 41,400 KRW, up 20.17% from the previous day.

The gaming industry interprets winning at Gamescom, one of the world's top three game shows, as not only recognition of the game's quality but also an indication of expected commercial success. Last year, Japan's FromSoftware's 'Elden Ring,' which was selected as the 'Most Anticipated PlayStation Game,' has sold over 17 million copies globally since its release, gaining immense popularity.

The reason game companies are focusing on console games is to target overseas markets. In North America and Europe, the console market share is similar to or higher than mobile and PC. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the global console game market size in 2020 was $55.8 billion (approximately 75 trillion KRW), accounting for 27% of the total game market. This is the result of an average annual growth rate of over 15% during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated to have grown to $64 billion (approximately 86 trillion KRW) this year.

The console game market, dominated by global game development companies, is not easy to enter initially. However, the hit cycle is long. The fact that intellectual property (IP) can be utilized in various ways such as animation, movies, and character businesses is also attractive.

Donghwan Oh, a researcher at Samsung Securities, explained, "'P-ui Geojit' is being released in the 'Soulslike' genre, so it is compared to Bandai Namco's hit game Elden Ring." He added, "Soulslike is a genre that generally refers to games developed similarly to the Souls series by Japan's FromSoftware, such as Demon's Souls and Dark Souls."

He continued, "It features a bleak era setting and high difficulty," and added, "Elden Ring, a Soulslike game released in February this year, sold about 17 million copies by June."

Researcher Oh noted, "Unlike Elden Ring, 'P-ui Geojit' was developed as a linear space rather than an open world, and its development cost is about 20% of Elden Ring's, around 20 billion KRW," but he judged, "Considering the level of completeness recognized at Gamescom, it is quite possible to achieve annual sales of around 2 million copies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.