No Room for Korean Games in China
The South Korean gaming industry faces deepening challenges. Chinese games have already outpaced South Korean games in terms of technical skill and quality. To top it off, the owner of nation’s largest gaming company Nexon Co. has put his entire stake for sale.
Gaming industry sources said on Jan. 6 that industry focus is on whether South Korean games can reenter the Chinese market as the Chinese government has resumed video game approval. However, market experts point out that there is no room for South Korean games in China since the Chinese market is already dominated by Chinese games.
Chinese mobile games have reached the global level, beyond that of South Korea, over the last two years when China banned sales of Korean games in China. There is no single South Korean game that made the top 10 on Google Play Store’s Global mobile app sales charts. Four out of the top 10 are Chinese games, including Tencent’s “Kong of Glory,” Supercell’s “Clash of Clans,” NetEase’s “Knives Out” and Supercell’s “Clash Royale.” The same situation is found in domestic sales. Chinese games account for half of the top 15 on domestic store’s sales charts.
With the Chinese government banning foreign games for a leap of Chinese games, the South Korean government has focused more on introducing new regulations than promoting the gaming industry. It has introduced a so-called shutdown system banning children under the age of 16 from playing online games after midnight. Discussions about easing regulations on payment limits have made slow progress. In addition, politicians are calling for additional regulations.
This is in stark contrast to Chinese gaming companies showing a significant growth under the Chinese government’s support. Top-notch South Korean game developers have moved to China and helped Chinese firms make it big. Chinese companies which made money by copying and circulating South Korean games acquired foreign gaming firms with huge capital.
Some market experts say that NXC Corp. CEO Kim Jung-ju has recently decided to sell his entire stake in NXC, the holding company of Nexon Group, because of the limited growth potential of the South Korean gaming industry.
Global market research company Euromonitor expects that South Korea will rank second among the top 10 PC online game markets in the world in 2022. In fact, three South Korean games – Neople’s “Dungeon Fighter Online,” Smilegate’s “CrossFire” and PUBG’s “Battlegrounds” – made the top 10 on the global PC online sales list.