Visitors play new online games at annual global games trade fair G-Star, which kicked off at BEXCO in Busan on Nov. 14, 2019. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, May 20 (Korea Bizwire) — China’s unprecedented restrictions on the gaming industry are turning the eyes of South Korean game developers to India, another country with a massive population.
Data.ai reported that the Indian version of Krafton Inc.’s global smash hit “PUBG: Battlegrounds” has topped sales charts in Apple’s App Store and ranked second on Google Play in India since last month.
Krafton has developed “Battleground Mobile India,” which was released in India in July last year, garnering more than 50 million downloads in less than two months.
Netmarble Games’ MARVEL Future Fight also made it to 16th place on the sales chart in India’s Google Play store this month, gaining massive popularity.
Meanwhile, NCSOFT Corp. vowed to invest 12 billion (US$9.46 million) won in Paramark KB PEF No.1 Limited Partnership in October last year to connect with investment partners for growing tech and platform companies in India.
The company also invested US$3 million in a fund managed by Indian venture capital firm LUmikai in November of last year to secure investment partners for gaming startups in India.
Krafton invested some 100 billion won in India’s game developers, e-sports firms, game streaming platform and web novel platforms in March of last year.
“Indian gamers have relatively weaker purchasing power than other countries, which indicates that our move into the Indian market will be up for a long run,” an industry source said.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
