Analyzing and predicting trends in the South Korean gaming market is tied to an understanding of the Korean consumer and their habits. South Korea’s unique consumer base for games and the culture surrounding games in the country mean that the market’s quirks and characteristics are highly localized and differ from other similar markets.
A key concept in the current South Korean gaming market is ‘multi-platform.’
Successful games are taking advantage of the diversity of players across different consoles and platforms and optimizing their game for cross-platform play. 58% of gamers take multi-platform availability into consideration when choosing which games to play, and 62% are willing to play new multi-platform games as they come out.
Interest by Korean consumers in mobile games with the potential to be played on PC is on the rise–articles on Naver blog with titles like “Smartphone screen mirroring with two-way communication to play mobile games on PC” and “How to play Unique Three Kingdoms, newly released game, on PC” regularly garner over twenty thousand views. Searches like “Mobile Game on PC” and “Multiplayer Mobile Game” are likewise increasing in frequency.
This has not gone unnoticed by heavy hitters in the South Korean game market. Companies like Nexon, Netmarble, and Kakao Games have multiplatform games scheduled to be released in 2023.
In a market as strong and competitive as South Korea’s market, games face many challenges in capturing and maintaining mainstream market attention. The diversity of the South Korean market means that there’s no one stereotype of a player that advertisers can cater to, and finding a way to appeal to a broad range of people playing a broad range of games.
These challenges are ones that Waterbe is specially equipped to face–with a deep knowledge of the Korean market and of the diversity of gamers in the country, we have the tools to help your game thrive in this competitive market.
In the next article in this series, we will look at how gamers are finding out about new games and the avenues in the Korean market your game can take to reach Korean players.