Sketcher, Zio Interactive's flagship game, was launched at the end of July last year. It recorded over 800,000 downloads in the nation alone and has been served in foreign countries including the U.S. and Europe. It is going to be provided in China later this year and then in Japan next year. Sketcher advanced to the finals of International Mobile Game Award (IMGA) in 2006 based on its unique method of progress and graphic.
Another game launched by the company in August, Crazy Family, advanced to the finals of GSMA's Mobile Award, making ZIO's games receive worldwide publicity once again. ZIO has won particularly many awards this year and Rubber Band and Crazy Family were selected Monthly Best Games in the nation. The Dungeon & Fighter series, a mobile licensing version of online games, has won notable popularity and the first and second editions have gotten a total of over 600,000 downloads. The latest third edition of Dungeon & Fighter . Heroes has absorbed online gamers as well as existing mobile user with its unique wire-wireless interworking type.
Besides, ZIO also have launched various games like KBO Baseball 2007 which is an official license game of KBO baseball and I Love Dongbangshingi (Tong Vang Xien Qi) which is a license game of the nation's idol group under the same name.
Advancement into overseas markets
ZIO signed a contract with China's leading Internet group Tencent to supply mobile game services in September and is working on porting. ZIO is expected to start its service in China in December. ZIO plans to provide those developed by other domestic companies as well as ones developed by it. If the first game is launched in December, it will be supplied to China Mobile, China's largest mobile carrier, and WAP portal 3G.QQ.com. The company also has a plan to launch three new games every month.
Sketcher and Team Up have been launched in the U.S. this year and another two or three games will be launched next year. Negotiations for this are under way. Those games are going to be served in Latin America and Europe as well. In the meantime, ZIO also is negotiating with Japan's major companies. As visible results come out during the first half of next year, the Japanese people will also be able to enjoy ZIO games.
ZIO Interactive has secured overseas markets in the world's major countries such as the U.S., China, Europe and Japan.
Planning to lead in post-PC era
Technological development has been bringing down barriers among media. Good contents can be served through various media. A core trend at present, in particular, is combination of portable mobile instruments like mobile phones and contents. ZIO can make mobile hit games any time it wants using its planning capacity. ZIO is going to spread this to diverse lifetype mobile handsets such as MP3 players and navigations, instead of limiting it to mobile phones.
ZIO will focus on overseas markets for the next 10 years. It plans to increase proportion of overseas sale which is about 15 percent at present to 30 percent by 2010. ZIO has secured major strongholds in foreign countries apparently to secure stable abroad markets. ZIO's strategy for extending its business abroad is to establish partnership with major companies in those nations rather than setting up corporations or branches. After it creates stable foundations in terms of sale and recognition, then it will be able to establish corporations or branches.
ZIO's ultimate goal is to make the 6-billion world population carry more than one of ZIO contents.
Market share of Korean mobile games
The nation's mobile game-related technological power is about half or one year advanced compared than foreign countries and this is the most appropriate time to attack overseas markets. Overseas mobile game developers react surprisingly upon seeing domestically developed mobile games. Domestic game developers can take a pride in their performance. Korea's mobile game industry has high technological competition and planning ability like this, but it still is in the early stage in terms of advancement into the world markets. Major firms recently have sought to expand to overseas markets in various ways such as building partnership with local companies or establishing corporations or branches. They are expected to produce notable performance sooner or later based on their excellent games. Like the cases of online games in the past, Korea will become a leading player in the field of mobile games within a few years.
ZIO is going to launch 16 new games in 2008; 14 to be developed by ZIO, two through outsourcing and four by domestic publishing. They will form a lineup encompassing various genres like arcade, RPG, sports and action.
