Neowiz's 'P-ui Geojit' Wins 6 Awards
Grand Prize Goes to Nexon's 'Dave the Diver'
Choi Ji-won, director of Neowiz's 'P's Falsehood,' is delivering an acceptance speech for the Grand Prize at the 2023 Korea Game Awards ceremony held on the 15th at BEXCO in Busan.
‘P’s Falsehood’ by Neowiz was awarded the Grand Prize at the ‘2023 Korea Game Awards,’ which honors the best game in South Korea this year. It was recognized for showcasing the potential of Korean console games by gaining global attention as a console platform game, a field rarely attempted by domestic game companies.
‘P’s Falsehood’ Sweeps the Game Awards
At the ‘2023 Korea Game Awards’ held on the 15th at BEXCO Convention Hall in Busan, ‘P’s Falsehood’ won six awards including the Grand Prize, Technical Creativity Awards (Planning & Scenario, Sound, Graphics), Popular Game Award, and Excellence in Development Award (awarded to Director Choi Ji-won). The organizers stated that ‘P’s Falsehood’ was selected for the Grand Prize as it "marked a meaningful beginning for Korean-style Soulslike action games."
Director Choi Ji-won, who created ‘P’s Falsehood,’ expressed gratitude to the management and production team members and said in his acceptance speech, "We will continue to create games that deliver only fun and emotion."
Developed by Round8 Studio under Neowiz, ‘P’s Falsehood’ is a Soulslike single-player action RPG set in the Belle ?poque era of the late 19th century. It features a unique world view adapted from the classic ‘Pinocchio’ into a dark fairy tale and boasts excellent action gameplay. Officially released on September 19, it sold over one million copies within just over a month.
Previously, ‘P’s Falsehood’ gained worldwide attention after winning three awards at ‘Gamescom 2022’ in Germany last year, the world’s largest game show, marking the first time a Korean game achieved this feat. It received particularly high praise for its gameplay, with the global review aggregator Metacritic giving it a Metascore of 80 (PS5), citing its "engaging story," "solid world-building," "excellent weapon combination system," and calling it "the best Soulslike game released this year."
Game Awards Show Potential of Console Games
This is only the second time since 2004 that a console game has won the Grand Prize at the Korea Game Awards. The first console game to win was ‘Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders,’ the first Korean game for Xbox. Since then, the domestic game market rapidly shifted to mobile games, and Korean game companies have focused on mobile game development.
However, this year’s Korea Game Awards proved the potential of Korean console games. ‘Dave the Dive’ by Nexon Korea, which won the Excellence Award, is also a console game. This game topped global sales on Steam, where over 100,000 new games are released annually, and surpassed two million cumulative sales in September.
The Excellence Awards also went to Mad Engine’s MMORPG ‘Night Crow,’ Shift Up’s collection game ‘Goddess of Victory: NIKKE,’ and Smilegate Entertainment’s virtual reality (VR) game ‘Crossfire: Sierra Squad.’ ‘Goddess of Victory: NIKKE’ also received the Technical Creativity Award in the character category.
The Good Game Award, given to games with public value, was awarded to ‘Florence Darkness,’ a game accessible to visually impaired players. Shin Hyun-seung, CEO of Com2uS Roca, a VR game specialist developer, received the Game Business Innovation Award for his contributions to developing VR games, which have a low domestic presence but have been highly praised overseas.
Kakao Games was selected for the Social Contribution Excellence Award for efforts to realize various social values, including accessibility for disabled gamers. Pow Games received the Startup Company Award, and Newcore Games’ ‘Devil Within: Satgat’ won the Indie Game Award.
The Merit Award, given to individuals who contributed to the game industry, was awarded to Mo In, CEO of the game media outlet The Games Daily. The eSports Development Award went to Kang Seong-hoon, Director of Spirit Zero, who served as the coach for the ‘Street Fighter V’ event at this year’s Hangzhou Asian Games.
Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is announcing the award recipients at the 2023 Korea Game Awards ceremony held on the 15th at BEXCO in Busan.
‘G-STAR’ Opens on the 16th, Korea’s Largest Game Show
The Korea Game Awards ceremony was held a day before ‘G-STAR 2023,’ Korea’s largest game show, which opens on the 16th at BEXCO in Busan. G-STAR will be the largest ever, with 3,250 booths, 303 more than last year. Domestic and international game companies will unveil numerous new titles. NCSoft is participating for the first time in eight years, and Netmarble, Wemade, Google Play, Smilegate, and Webzen have set up large booths.
Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, visited the G-STAR and Korea Game Awards venues for the first time in 14 years, showing his commitment to promoting the game industry. Yoo also attended G-STAR in 2009 while serving as Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism. He returned wearing the jumper made to commemorate the 2009 G-STAR event.
Minister Yoo said, “President Yoon Suk-yeol recently mentioned probability-based items and expressed deep interest in games, hoping for policy support to grow this industry. I promise to continue working together here to ensure the government’s interest blossoms at this venue and that the industry continues to thrive.”
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