Breaking Away
An increasing number of major game developers in the country are joining the trend of breaking away from Kakao Games to directly launch their mobile games.
According to industry sources on May 13, large gaming companies like NHN Entertainment, YD Online, HanbitSoft, and PATI Games are not choosing KakaoTalk's gaming platform for their new games. Instead, they are directly marketing their games.
PATI Games released action-RPG Dragon Quest Heroes on Google Play on that day without using Kakao Games. It is the second time for the company to launch its new game in that way, following the introduction of SD Gundam Battle Station on April 2014.
NHN Entertainment and YD Online, developing different games using the God of High School on Naver Webtoon, are expected to jump on the “de-Kakao” bandwagon, as well.
HanbitSoft is intensifying its efforts to develop this year's first new mobile action-RPG game, and the firm is also planning to release the game independently in June without choosing KakaoTalk's gaming platform. In the past, Netmarble's Raven was successful, helped by its marketing partnership with Naver. Likewise, HanbitSoft is currently considering whether to utilize Naver for marketing its new game.
An industry source said, "For gaming companies, it is more beneficial to save costs by directly launching their games in App markets, instead of choosing Kakao Games. It is due to the fact that Kakao takes away 21 percent of sales from games on its gaming platform." The source added, "So, the phenomenon of leaving Kakao Games will be more common in the future."
Meanwhile, 226 local games were released via KakaoTalk's gaming platform last year. An estimated 50 games were launched on Kakao Games in the first quarter of this year, and the number was a sudden sharp decrease from a year ago (87 games).