This image provided by South Korean game developer Nexon Co. shows its online game “Blue Archive” in Chinese.
SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Korean-made mobile games are facing challenges in the Chinese market following a recent attempt to expand.
Smilegate Holdings Inc.’s “Epic Seven,” which entered the Chinese market last June, held the 67th position on the Apple Store’s sales chart in the second week of August, according to mobile app market tracker AppMagic.
Nexon Co.’s “Blue Archive,” launched earlier this month, secured the 53rd spot on the sales charts.
Both games experienced initial success, briefly ranking among the top 10 bestsellers after debut, but were subsequently displaced from the top 50.
Industry insiders affirm that the belief in a guaranteed hit upon “launching a game in China” has become outdated.
Pearl Abyss Corp.’s “Black Desert Mobile,” released in China in April of the previous year, swiftly ascended the sales charts upon release, only to plummet out of the top 100 within three to four months.
“With deteriorating Seoul-Beijing relations, China’s interest in Korean intellectual property has waned. Meanwhile, Chinese game developers have achieved significant growth with titles like ‘Genshin Impact’ or ‘Honkai: Star Rail,’” an industry source said.
Nonetheless, there exist some proponents who contend that these South Korean games are still in the nascent stages of their expansion into the Chinese market. Thus, they argue that any assessment at this point would be premature.
“Collectible role-playing games tend to experience sales surges with each new character introduction, necessitating a long-term perspective,” an official at a local game developer said.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
