6 out of 10... Retro Games Dominating the Mobile Market

Lineage Brothers and Baram's Land Mobile Versions Maintain Ranks 1-3
"Without New IP Development, Future Growth Potential Limited," Critics Point Out

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Domestic retro games have dominated the mobile market. More than half of the top 10 grossing games on Google Play are domestic retro games. Although they have regained pride against Chinese mobile games, there are also concerns that the development of new intellectual property (IP) is urgently needed.

According to the gaming industry on the 1st, eight domestic mobile games ranked in the top 10 on Google Play revenue. Among them, six are mobile versions based on domestic PC games released over 10 years ago.

NCSoft's 'LineageM,' utilizing the Lineage intellectual property (IP), and 'Lineage2M,' using the Lineage2 IP, ranked 1st and 3rd respectively in Google Play revenue rankings. Lineage, launched in September 1998, has led NCSoft's growth as the leading domestic massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for over 20 years.

Nexon's 'Baram-ui Nara: Yeon,' released on the 15th of last month, is showing strong performance by ranking 2nd in Google Play revenue. Baram-ui Nara: Yeon is based on Nexon's flagship longest-running PC game IP 'Baram-ui Nara,' released in 1996. The original game and its world share the same setting, focusing on the early Three Kingdoms period with protagonists King Yuri and Prince Hodong.

Nexon's 'KartRider Rush Plus,' launched in May, ranked 6th in revenue. This mobile game is based on the 'Kart' IP, a PC game released in 2004 that has been loved for 16 years. Kart has a strong fan base with 28 million domestic members and 380 million global members.

Webzen's representative PC game 'MU Online' IP was used for 'MU Archangel,' which also performed well by ranking 4th in revenue. MU Online, released by Webzen in 2001, is Korea's first 3D PC MMORPG. It is a long-running game now in its 20th year, having gained popularity in Korea and the Chinese-speaking regions during the 2000s. Gravity's 'Ragnarok Origin' also recorded 5th place in revenue and is sailing smoothly. Ragnarok Origin is a mobile MMORPG utilizing the Ragnarok IP, which began beta service in November 2001.

Thanks to the strong performance of these retro games, it is evaluated that the domestic mobile market leadership, which was previously encroached upon by Chinese mobile games last year, has been regained. However, there are concerns that without new IP development, there will be limits to securing future growth engines for K-games. An industry insider pointed out, "The mobile game market has a shorter lifecycle than PC games, so mobile versions reproducing existing PC games without new IP development can quickly fall behind Chinese mobile games."