SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean game developer Netmarble Corp. said Monday it plans to acquire Hong-Kong based social casino game company SpinX Games in a deal estimated at US$2.1 billion. Under the plan, the South Korean company will purchase a 100 percent stake in Cayman Island-based Leonardo Interactive Holdings Ltd., which fully [...]
SEOUL, July 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Competition in South Korea’s mobile video game market is set to intensify in the coming months with the launches of new titles, analysts said Friday. Video game giant NCSOFT Corp. is set to release “Blade & Soul 2,” the sequel to its popular massively multiplayer online role playing game [...]
SEOUL, July 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Krafton Inc., the video game company behind “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), said Monday it is aiming for aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&As) after its initial public offering (IPO) next month, as it eyes to expand its foothold in the global video game market. Krafton is scheduled to go public on [...]
SEOUL, July 16 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean online gaming giant NCSOFT Corp. has introduced an artificial intelligence (AI)-based translation engine for the first time in the country’s gaming industry. Users can now access real-time translation service between Korean and English on ‘Purple Talk,’ a messenger service available on ‘Purple,’ NCSOFT’s gaming platform. The new [...]
SEOUL, July 9 (Korea Bizwire) – Zynga Inc., a U.S. gaming giant behind the hit title “FarmVille,” sees room for growth in South Korea and the broader Asian market in its push for global expansion. Bernard Kim, Zynga’s president of publishing, said that the mobile game developer is keeping an eye out for markets in [...]
SEOUL, July 6 (Korea Bizwire) — Minecraft, a sandbox video game popular among elementary school children, is on the verge of being limited only to adults in South Korea due to the country’s ‘Game Shutdown Policy’ that bans children under 16 years of age from accessing games between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. Microsoft Corp. [...]
SEOUL, June 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Krafton Inc., a South Korean gaming giant behind the global smash hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), said Monday that it has invested US$9 million in India-based streaming platform Loco. The funding includes other investors, such as Lumikai, India’s first gaming and interactive media fund, as well as Hashed, Hiro Capital, [...]
SEOUL, June 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Krafton Inc., the gaming giant behind the global smash hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), said Wednesday it plans to raise as much as 5.6 trillion won (US$5 billion) through an initial public offering (IPO) that will likely place it as South Korea’s most valuable video game company. The company plans [...]
SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — NCSOFT Corp., a major South Korean online and mobile game developer, announced that it will self-impose strong regulations as game developers are imposing stricter voluntary restrictions on ‘gacha’ items. The Korea Internet and Digital Entertainment Association has recently released an amended code of conduct for self-regulation on gacha items. [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — At the start of the year, Devsisters Corp. was a minor mobile game publisher struggling to turn around, crossing its fingers over the launch of its latest installment of the casual endless runner series Cookie Run. Three months later, “Cookie Run: Kingdom” has dominated South Korea’s mobile app store [...]