Kakao Entertainment Supports Webtoon IP for Small and Medium Game Developers

Kakao Entertainment supports webtoon intellectual property (IP) to promote the development of the domestic game industry and strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized game developers.

On the 3rd, Kakao Entertainment announced that it will carry out the ‘IP Utilization Gyeonggi Game Production Support’ project in collaboration with the Gyeonggi Content Agency.

The ‘IP Utilization Gyeonggi Game Production Support’ project, hosted by the Gyeonggi Content Agency, helps capable small and medium-sized game developers find new opportunities by providing licenses for IP utilization and supporting costs from development to commercialization. Companies holding original IPs from various genres such as animation, characters, entertainment, and drama, including Kakao Entertainment, which has secured the largest scale of webtoon and web novel IPs in Korea, participate in this project. Kakao Entertainment has been cooperating in the project by providing licenses for webtoon IPs since last year.

This year, in the webtoon category, the game production project will focus on six works from Kakao Entertainment’s IP portfolio: ▲Aoring Tokyo ▲Binkkeopdegi Gongjakbuin ▲Mudanggi Hyup ▲Heoyakseonsaeng ▲The Divorced Villainess Bakes a Cake ▲The Lady’s Court. In addition to these IPs, if supported companies wish to develop other IPs owned by Kakao Entertainment, proposals and consultations are possible.

Kakao Entertainment is actively conducting secondary creation projects using about 10,000 webtoon and web novel IPs. Last year, it sold rights for dramas, movies, and animations based on over 50 webtoon and web novel IPs. This year, it opened with webtoon-based dramas such as ‘Sacred Divorce’ and ‘Taxi Driver 2,’ and plans to present major lineups including ‘Moving’ and ‘The Uncanny Counter 2.’ In the game sector, super IPs like ‘Solo Leveling’ and ‘The Swordsman’s Son’ are currently in development.

Hwang Hyun-soo, head of Kakao Entertainment’s Story Business Division, said, “We sympathize with the purpose of the project to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic small and medium venture developers and the Korean game industry as a whole, and we are honored to contribute. We look forward to the birth of games that capture the charm of Kakao Entertainment’s webtoon IP well.”