End of Monopoly
The game “Raven,” co-marketed by Naver and Netmarble Games, has became successful, and some say that it is an indicator that the mobile game market centered on KakaoTalk mobile games is expected to change.
Raven, a mobile game launched on March 12, is so popular that it has ranked 1st in sales in Apple’s App Store and Google Play just four days after opening. It has kept first place in sales of games in the two largest app stores until March 19.
Until now it has been very difficult for a domestic mobile game to be successful if it wasn't on the KakaoTalk platform. According to App Annie, the top 10 games sold via Google Play during 2013 to 2014 were almost all carried by KakaoTalk. Although “Clash of Clans” by Supercell ranked first in sales starting from Oct. 12 as a non-KakaoTalk game, there has been no domestic game that ranked first outside of the KakaoTalk platform. Com2uS and Gamevil, which succeded with a non-KakaoTalk game in the global market, couldn't make a good result in the domestic market. It means that the influence of KakaoTalk in the domestic mobile game market was so big.
The Raven is the first non-KakaoTalk game that ranked first in sales in the both app stores. The success of Raven is giving not a small meaning to the local game industry. Encouraged by the success of cooperation with Netmarble, Naver is going to co-market with other game developers too.
Naver and Netmarble aren't opening the ratio of profit shares, but the profit rate paid to Naver is said to be lower than that for KakaoTalk games.