Webzen to Release 'Tervis' Within the Year
Developing Instead of New MMORPG Title
Subculture games, a type of collectible role-playing game (RPG), are emerging as a mainstream trend. As domestic game companies begin developing these games one by one, the market is also expanding.
According to the IT industry on the 31st, Webzen is focusing on in-house development with a plan to release the subculture game "Tervis" within this year, instead of a new title related to its popular intellectual property (IP) "MU." They have chosen to target subculture games rather than the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "MU."
Webzen’s move to develop Tervis strongly reflects a portfolio diversification strategy. A company representative stated, "While securing a stable cash cow with the MU-based MMORPG, we are targeting subculture games that show continuous growth trends."
The subculture game genre mainly refers to collectible RPG games characterized by Japanese anime-style graphics. The gameplay involves collecting, nurturing, and strengthening various characters to engage in battles.
Recently, the revenue share of subculture games has been increasing. According to mobile data analytics firm Sensor Tower, as of the third quarter of last year, the revenue from collectible RPGs, a representative type of subculture games, accounted for 17.7% of the total RPG game revenue in South Korea. This figure rose by 5.5 percentage points compared to the same period the previous year. From January to August last year, Shift Up’s "Goddess of Victory: Nikke" ranked first in revenue in the Japanese game market. Nexon Games’ Blue Archive recorded global market revenue of approximately $220 million (about 293.8 billion KRW) from January to October last year, nearly doubling compared to the previous year.
With growing expectations that the popularity of subculture games can lead to performance growth, game companies are rushing to either service games developed by other companies or start their own development. Webzen, after publishing "Ragnador: The Lost Yaksha Princess" and "I Want to Be a Dark Power!: Master of Garden," is now proceeding with in-house development. Com2uS also unveiled "Starseed: Asnia Trigger," developed by game company Mohito Games, on the 25th, aiming for a domestic release in the first half of the year.
The entry into the subculture game genre also reflects a sense of crisis regarding MMORPG games, which have been the main portfolio of existing domestic game companies. NCSoft, which showed significant growth with "Lineage M" and other "Lineage-like" MMORPG games, experienced a sharp decline in performance. The stock price of NCSoft, which was around 430,000 KRW at the beginning of last year, fell to 198,900 KRW as of the 30th.
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