[Square] Game Industry, A Time When Genuine Promotion Policies Are Needed

Kang Sin-cheol, President of the Korea Game Industry Association

As we welcome the New Year 2020, new hopes and excitement are rising everywhere. New plans and rosy prospects are repeated every year, but they are always joyful. We hope that the Year of the Metal Rat (Gyeongja Year) will be filled only with joyous events.

Our country's game industry also had good news from the beginning of the year. According to the recently published "2019 Korea Game White Paper" by the Korea Creative Content Agency, the domestic game industry surpassed 14 trillion won (14.2902 trillion won) in scale as of 2018. It firmly holds the 4th place among the top 10 countries worldwide, following the United States, China, and Japan.

The status as an "export cash cow" is still ongoing. According to the "2019 First Half Content Industry Trend Analysis Report," the game industry accounted for 69.2% of the total cultural content industry exports in the first half of last year.

The contribution of the game industry to our national economy is clear. It exerts influence on the trade balance surplus through active overseas market penetration and contributes significantly to job creation. In fact, games hold the highest position in both the youth employment growth rate and the number of workers in their 20s within the content industry. The employment inducement coefficient is 13.46, and the job inducement coefficient is 15.26, boasting about 2.5 times higher levels compared to manufacturing. As of 2018, the number of workers in the game industry approaches approximately 85,000.

However, it seems difficult to expect only a "flower road" ahead. Both domestic and international environments show a significant slowdown in industry growth. The domestic market growth rate has decreased by more than half compared to the previous year (from 20.6% to 8.7%), and the overseas export growth rate has plummeted to a stagnation level (from 49.1% to 2.5%).

Discussions regarding Gaming Disorder, which classifies game use as a disease, are a "red light," or warning signal, for the entire game industry. This could shake the game ecosystem to its core.

According to the recently released report "Research on Social Changes Due to the Introduction of Game Disease Codes," the direct and indirect industrial damage caused by the introduction of the Gaming Disorder disease code is estimated to reach up to 7.6 trillion won by 2025. Additionally, it is expected that more than 50,000 people will lose employment opportunities. Applying this to the current situation means the industry scale would be halved, and the number of workers would shrink by more than 60%.

In this regard, strategic government support policies are urgently needed. Wings must be given to the game industry so that it can soar as a new growth engine.

Countries overseas are paying attention to the potential and growth possibilities of the game industry and are implementing nurturing policies suited to their own circumstances. China, which has grown into the world's largest market, has done so, and countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France are following similar paths. Tencent, boasting a market capitalization of 549 trillion won, is well known as a Chinese game company.

In Korea, much attention is also focused on future government policies. This is because the current "Game Industry Promotion Act" is expected to undergo a complete overhaul.

The encouraging part is that the government has a high level of understanding of the game industry. The "payment limit for adults on PC online games," a representative game regulation that had long constrained the industry through "shadow regulations" not even stipulated in laws, was abolished last year by the current government.

Park Yang-woo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, stated at last year's Korea Game Awards ceremony, "Aggressive support for the game industry will continue in 2020." This single statement instilled courage and hope in the domestic game industry.

In 2020, we sincerely hope that policies for genuine game promotion will be implemented.

Kang Shin-chul, Chairman of the Korea Game Industry Association