Export Slump... K-Games to Drive Recovery

Image of the upcoming new release "Throne and Liberty" by NCSoft.

This year, domestic game companies in Korea are releasing a series of new titles that were postponed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of these new releases aim to target the global market.

Last year, the trade balance in the computer program sector, including games, recorded a deficit of $1.84 billion (approximately 2.41 trillion KRW), marking the largest annual deficit on record. The trade balance, which reflects the profit and loss from exports and imports between countries, has been in deficit for 13 consecutive months since March last year. The sluggish game exports have had a significant impact on this.

This is due to the lack of new game releases during the COVID-19 period. Sudden changes in work systems and COVID-19 infections among development teams slowed down game development. As a result, the number of new releases dropped to about half compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. However, the situation is different this year. Major game companies have shifted back to full office attendance since last year, accelerating game development and starting to release new titles one after another.

Global market reactions to Korean games are already heating up. Com2uS’s “Summoners War: Chronicle” (hereafter Chronicle), which began its global market push on the 9th of last month, surpassed 30 billion KRW in sales within 25 days. Chronicle achieved 30% of its annual sales target of 100 billion KRW in a short period.

Com2uS 'Summoners War: Chronicle' image.

One reason why Korean games are especially expected to perform well in the global market this year is the release of console-based games, which are popular in North America and Europe. Console games account for more than 25% of the global game industry market, but Korea’s share is about 5%.

Domestic game companies such as NCSoft and Neowiz are releasing new console games. NCSoft will launch “Throne and Liberty” (hereafter TL) in the first half of the year. TL has signed a publishing contract with Amazon Games to achieve success in North America and Europe. Expectations are also high for Neowiz’s “P’s Lie,” which will be released in August. “P’s Lie” attracted worldwide attention by winning three awards at Gamescom, a global game exhibition.

Another factor contributing to the rebound in game exports is China reopening its market after previously locking it down. In 2017, China imposed retaliatory measures against Korea by not issuing game licenses (service permits) for Korean games following the deployment of the U.S. THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense system in South Korea. Recently, China has resumed issuing game licenses to domestic game companies, and Nexon, Netmarble, Smilegate, and Wemade are preparing to launch services in China.

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