Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism has announced it intends to boldly grow the country's console market, with significant government investment through 2028, in a bid to revitalise the nation's burgeoning games industry. Shift Up's success with Stellar Blade is no doubt part of the reason for this console push, but we should give due credit to Neowiz. Lies of P made a splash and was excellent in its own right, walking so that Stelly could run.
As reported by Yonhap News Agency (thanks, Gamesindustry.biz), console gamers currently comprise 28% of the global gaming market, but Korea's share of that pie is just 1.5%, according to the ministry. For comparison, around 40% of North American and European gamers play on console.
Despite that, Korean players spent 22.2 trillion won ($16.2 billion) on video games last year, making the nation the fourth-largest gaming market in the world. The ministry says it will work with Korean developers and companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to develop new console titles over the next five years, in addition to supporting local independent studios.
Are you excited about the upcoming swathe of Korean console games this initiative will likely create? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source m-en.yna.co.kr, via gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 18
You mean South Korean of course.
@R_Ryder tbh after seeing some of their crazy propaganda cartoons, I'd be deeply curious to know what a North Korean video game might look like
@Ralizah Haze. It would look like Haze. But without the reveal.
@Sequel I was just commenting how great it was to have a bug free playthrough of Stellar Blade. It's a shame that's a rather rare occurance.
Always good to see more studios being backed, and games from different countries.
I look forward to what, if anything, emerges from this. It would be great to have an additional "voice" in the console market.
South Korea is doing great work in television and movies and I guess music so it stands to reason that we'd start seeing interesting stuff in games from over there too.
@Ralizah
I would imagine you'd play the great leader as he uses god-like powers to kill lots of South Koreans, Americans and Japanese people before nuking the rest of the world.
All while on horseback.
The Korean creative industry is resonating with the west in a big way, and it's been gaining steam for years. Their shows, movies, and games are doing things that western audiences love in storytelling and gameplay. The studios focus on delivering a good experience to everybody, not a message via a vanity project with bloated cost. I certainly hope we see more - the games industry needs a shake-up like this.
@Sequel they also seem to know how to get the best results out of the ps5 tech too...other devs should be asking them for help with their own poorly optimised games.
Wonder which Korea are we talking about.
I forgot Lies of P are a Korean studio too.
Two good games from Korea, hopefully we'll get more
I have been absolutely hooked on Stellar Blade and I do intend to get to Lies of P. (I have it installed, just haven't had the time) If this is a sign of things to come from Korea then we are in for some great games in the future.
@Futureshark Where is your imagination?!
He would totally be riding on the back of a T-rex holding a machine gun that is also riding on a tank!
South Korea might take over as dominant game developers
@Sequel and others
Was thinking just the same thing - other than Sony 1st party, these 2 games (Lies of P, S Blade) have had some of the best performance mode optimisation / lowest bug counts, in recent memory on PS5 (with the addition of Hogwarts legacy which for open world launched in a really really good state, then framerates were increased significantly beyond 60 in normal performance mode in patches).
Lies of P was one of my best games last year too.
Lies Of P and Stellar Blade are both outstanding and run smoothly
Always happy to see different markets making globally accessible games.
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