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What would be the main buzzword in the Korean game industry in 2023? It is hard to sum up the trend changes in the K-game industry in 2023, but if we narrow down the range to genres, I would say the “the beginning of diversity beyond MMORPG”’ is the most highlighted phenomenon.

The game industry started pursuing diversity in the genre by removing dependence and the centralization of the MMORPG genre. Since 1998, NCSOFT first introduced Lineage, MMORPG has been the steady-selling genre that has led the golden age of the K-game. Followed by Lineage IP, NCSOFT released many games, including Lineage 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul to become the most successful game company in MMORPG. Other competitors launched the numerous games that would become their most popular MMORPG game. In fact, the major game companies in Korea that had success with MMORPG continued growing, and the competition among the companies became even more fierce by releasing MMORPG games that continued the previous game story. The successful DNA of MMORPG was also effective in the overseas market. It gained great success in the Chinese market has similar users as Koreans, and led to the popularity of the K-game on the global stage.

Lineage start scene_NCSOFT website

Challenging the diversity of resources

Bright light always cast a dark shadow. As the popularity of the MMORPG genre grew, the game industry was soon filled with similar games. Different game companies kept releasing games similar to Lineage that copied the successful story, vocation, hitting level, business model, and community. Their success was limited to creating a ‘Lineage-like’ genre, and the majority of these games were quickly forgotten by users.

Many users got tired of the bias of the MMORPG genre, and it resulted in the gradual changes of the game companies. Game companies felt that it is hard to appeal their games with Lineage-like context such as the medieval fantasy background, swordsmen, magicians, strengthening and synthesis through the probability items, and pyramid system politics and economy, and they start to create diversity with their resources. Also, the Chinese market where MMORPG was mostly exported banned Korean culture, which led to the game companies stoppings releasing new games and collecting the large amount of development expenses they invested in. Such issues accelerated game companies' ability to create games other than the MMORPG genre.

Uma musume Pretty Derby provided by Kakao Games | Goddess of Victory: Nikke provided by Nikke Facebook

Dave the Diver provided by Nexon

The beginning of a significant change

Subculture is the main genre that started substituting MMORPG. It has been a popular genre in Japan and China with a relatively light gaming structure, story-oriented fandom, and Gen Z-oriented culture. Along with Nexon’s Blue Archive, Uma Musume of Kakao Games, and Goddess of Victory: Nikke by SHIFT UP highlighted their differentiated gaming characteristics to lead anti-MMORPG. Other than subculture, the soulslike genre has been popular as Lies of P made by NEOWIZ won 6 sections of Korea Game Awards 2023, and Dave the Diver made by Nexon recorded 2 million single package sales for the first time in Korea by applying the marine adventure as a hybrid genre that shows creativity, originality, and popularity. These changes have made a significant inflection point in the Korean game market that used to be full of MMORPG games only.

Lies of P provided by NEOWIZ

Start of new games and generations

The genre diversification will be accelerated further even after 2024. G-Star is where you can observe the upcoming game trends, and in 2023 it was filled with new games in diverse genres instead of MMORPG. Webzen, which used to focus on MMORPG so far, launched 3 kinds of subculture games, including Terbis, and Gravity and Kuro Games also released new subculture games. Krafton, which made Battlegrounds to target against MMORPG, presented inZOI which is a life simulation game to entertain visitors throughout the G-Star exhibition period.

Especially, a new atmosphere in the industry could be observed through NCSOFT’s changes that used to make MMORPG games only. NCSOFT participated in G-Star after 8 years and introduced 6 highly diversified new games based on MMO shooting, battle royal, adventure, and puzzles in addition to the soon-to-be released MMORPG game named TL which presents their new changes and challenges. CEO Kim Taek-Jin of NCSOFT announced that NCSOFT now welcomes users with diversified and casual genres, and you can now see how other neglected genres are becoming the main genres followed by the new gaming generations.

2023 G-Star opening provided by G-Star TV

Finding a new path through coexistence and competition

This doesn’t mean that the game companies will not use the MMORPG genre in the future. As the diversity of fandoms has risen, companies are trying to diversify their portfolios. Also, genre diversification is also beneficial in the medium to long term to improve the balance between different genres and maximize the competitiveness and synergy of companies. CEO Jang Hyeonguk of WeMade that made a popular MMORPG genre game Night Crows, emphasized that the diversified genre games will develop the ecosystem of the entire game industry, but the K-MMORPG context must be kept, and it needs to be further innovated in the future. From this, we can conclude that the K-game must take a path that combines the balanced coexistence and competition of various genres.

Original article: https://www.kocca.kr/n_content/vol30/sub01.html