Bright Prospects for Asia-Pacific Online Game Market
Bright Prospects for Asia-Pacific Online Game Market
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  • 승인 2006.07.01 12:01
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Game & Contents The global market intelligence analysis company IDC announced that the scale of the Asia-Pacific online game market has steadily developed, and professionals expect that it will grow up to US$3.6 bil. by 2010. It will be a remarkable growth considering last year's US$1.4 bil. In the meantime, the domestic online game market will grow up to approximately US$990 mil. from last year's US$630 mil. According to the IDC's recent report, Outlook for the Asia-Pacific Online Game Market, the Asia-Pacific region's (except Japan's) online game market scale will continue growing by approximately 21% every year so until 2010, the market scale will rise by up to US$3.6 bil. The report also mentioned that Korea's online game users total 63 million, equivalent to 29.5% of the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, Korea occupies 45.3% of the Asia- Pacific online game market. But the proportion is slightly dropping, owing to rising game markets' rapid progress, such as China. Ha Ki-Seock senior researcher of IDC Korea, who participated in this investigation project said "Korea's domestic online game market was steadily progressed owing to the rapid prevalence of high speed Internet, PC zones, and the creation of various games by superior game developing companies, but once the market reaches saturation, the shape of the growth curve can change easily." And he added, "The domestic online game market will grow up to US$990 mil. By 2010 through 9.6% growth rate every year from last year. Since the rate of market growth has slowed, lots of game companies are trying to extend their markets overseas. In the meantime since the game companies' profit polarizing deepens more, small game companies are continuously undergoing severe hardship," Ha Ki-Seock forecasted. "In the near future, the domestic game market will gain benefits from Wibro, HSDPA' s launching and various terminal device's development so according to the remarkable changes online game style also will change to wholly multi-platform style. Digital Contents Awards in Seoul On June 30, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) held the Digital Contents Awards ceremony in Seoul. Various sectors' awardees received prizes at the ceremony: Digital movie section: "Z-squad" by Enemes Corp.; Education contents section: "Kidsdorm" by Blue Sky; Next generation contents section: " Zeb-studio " by NVL soft corp; Online game section: "Soul of the Ultimate Nation" by Webzen Corp; and Mobile contents sections: "Burst Rally" by Gamevil Corp. These prizes are awarded on the basis of quality and competitive power in the overseas market, technological excellence, business ability etc. Companies which received digital contents prize will receive some benefits regarding support in abroad export marketing and television commercial marketing etc. The following is a brief description of each section's awardees: Digital Section /'Z-squad' (Enemes Corp.) This animation has an interesting story about three teenage girls. Enemes poured large sums of money into production costs totaling 8.3 billion won (U$ 8.8 million) and spent 3 years planning the project. This animation series was composed of 26 episodes, with the characters overcoming tough training courses based on Greek myths and shows how they become aware of both the bitterness and joyfulness of life. Each episode contains exciting adventures and conflicts among the characters. It will be released through SBS around October in Korea and in North America In January 2007. Education contents section/'Kids dorm' (Blue Sky Corp.) This is a next generation's education content. Through this role-play education system children can learn difficult figures and calculation. and also become more familiar with Hangeul. Unlike usual textbooks or visual teaching materials, children can aggressively participate in given stories and direct the education system plots. Online game section/ 'Ernis and Fricky' (Actoz soft Corp.) Users can enjoy the adventure in this cool threedimensional game. "Cube" delivers a combination of adventure, and arcade action, and new concept of RPG that users have never seen before. Fricky is a mischievous 18-year-old girl. She was famous as a powerful player who solved the most difficult quests in the first stage of the cube-testing period. But after officially opening the cube space, she has been cast out of the cube space because of the massacre of 'bug dolls' and jeering at other players. Ernis is a 16-year old-old boy with a stolid face. He was able to connect to the cube space through his father's influence, famous for development of connection equipment to the virtual reality. He gets involved in unexpected affairs while helping Fricky. Mobile contents section/ 'Burst Rally' (Gamevil Corp.) GAMEVIL is proving to be a big hit with youngsters, with fantastic casual one-button games. Burst Rally is a mobile racing rally game, which has two different play modes, Championship and Time Trial. Also, the graphics are realistic compared to other 2D racing games and gives the feeling as if the user is playing a 3D racing game. The engine of this game is spectacular because of the various effects. For example, there are such effects as Drift, Spin, and Capsize etc., which is difficult to see in other 2D racing games. This game hit the road and tore up the competition in the fastest most robust mobile racing experience with Burst Rally: World Championship. Get behind the wheel, strap in, and get ready to tour the world on 16 unique tracks in eight beautiful, exotic countries. Next generation contents section/' Zeb studio' (NVL soft) 3D virtual solution company NVL soft rolled out its 3D film product studio on May 2. Users can make movies through 'Zeb studio' utilizing 3D game engine. Recently, UCC, moving picture, has come to the fore as an Internet megatrend, while www.zeb.co.kr presented a wholly different new genre 3D movie made by Netizens, so users can display various items at the virtual studio and direct characters action to filming. To make 3D movies, very expensive and complicated 3D software is needed. But NVL soft- Korea's the best simulator solution company, which has developed a flight, tank simulation, and movie simulation and operate heavy machinery educations etc., applied 3D virtual reality's know-how to the online program so, 'Zeb' was created. The key features of the 'Zeb' are that users can utilize high quality 3D virtual solutions such as war game and army simulation skills. In a nutshell, 'Zeb' is a next generation 3D movie tool that easily matches eagerness for making films. 'Zeb' Service Introduction. 'Zeb' is the next 'life casting media service, by using 'Zeb', you can make an imaginative 3D movies by yourself and communicate with others. 'Zeb' gives users a chance to freely express their lives, dreams and imagination. 'Zeb-studio' is the next generation tool making multimedia contents by setting up maps, objects, and characters. By using 'Zeb-studio' people can design and make up 3D virtual space easily, and people can direct various situations with people's own scenarios or storyboards. After shooting scenes or movies, users can save it as a filed and streaming movie. All places people can imagine can be made as a set item by using 'Zeb studio' and people can direct various situations by using set items which express seasons, weather and time, and there is no limitation that people can imagine. People can use various animated objects like reeds swaying in the wind, a streetlight, a tree cicada singing and set up various animation-effect on the object items. Object items connected with motions of character also can be available for users. (ex. running machine.etc) Each Items once purchased are freely reusable for decorating other set item. Usually, excellent movies are made of a lot of set items, object items, character items. Therefore it becomes the motive to make users to buy items. All things that you see and imagine can be made through 3D modeling skills based on hyper-realism. Online game section/'Soul of the Ultimate Nation' (Webzen Corp.) With a production budget of over $10 million and 3 years in the making, the epic action MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Soul of the Ultimate Nation is Webzen's ambitious second game title after the enormously successful MU Online. Since Webzen unveiled Soul of the Ultimate Nation's work-in-progress, with its highly detailed, graphically stunning visuals, gamers worldwide have been eagerly anticipating the game's official release. In September 2005, its first closed beta testing drew a record- breaking 300,000 hopeful subscribers intent on beating the 303:1 odds for the final 999 spots. In addition, boasting music and graphics produced by world-renowned specialists, Soul of the Ultimate Nation is garnering rave reviews for taking the online game to the next level. The original soundtrack was recorded by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, giving triumphant life to the music composed by Howard Shore, the winner of the Academy AwardA for The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Game fans are also treated to CG movies produced by Mikitaka Kurosawa of the famed Onimusha series in Japan. During the threestage beta testing conducted from September 2005 to January 2006, gamers gave high marks to Soul of the Ultimate Nation's stylish graphics and the innovative battle zone system1 that allows players to customize the map's level of difficulty and compensation. For the open beta tests, Webzen is upgrading the game's excitement by adding further enhancements to the game's mission2, quest3 and field4 maps. Also, by adding a competitive hunting system and mission ranking system for an even faster, more dynamic action play, Webzen promises to push the envelop in the action MMORPG genre. Not surprisingly, these efforts and innovations are attracting global attention. Soul of the Ultimate Nation has been ranked as the most anticipated game by gamers in China since September 2005. Webzen has also signed a publishing contract with The 9 for $13 million, the single largest export license contract in the history of Korea's online games. Soul of the Ultimate Nation is slated for open testing in May 2006, after which the game will debut in phases all across the globe.

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