Text/Repair

A few days ago, Grape Jun went to Busan, South Korea, and played a lap at the G-Star Game Show.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of G-Star, second only to last year. But what surprised me a little was that this time in the BTC pavilion, I only saw a Chinese manufacturer in Eagle Point exhibiting with "Ark of Tomorrow: The End", and there were no products such as "Ming Tide", "Back to the Future: 1999", "Girls' Frontline" and other products seen in previous years, and there were no overseas companies such as EA and Bandai Namco.

It seems that everyone has lost interest in the Korean game market.

"Compared with exhibitions such as TGS in Japan and Cologne in Germany, G-Star is indeed not so international and more local." An overseas marketer told me. "Although G-Star is sometimes referred to as one of the four major game shows in the world, its global influence is still quite far from the other three, and almost only Korean gamers care about it."

Compared with the lack of interest in the Korean market by domestic companies, it is clear that the Korean team is more enthusiastic about Chinese games, and Yao Meng of Youxing and Yu Zhong of Scattered Explosion have been invited to give speeches and share their views.

Even if some domestic second games did not participate in the exhibition, there are still many games from "Singing Tide", "Genshin Impact", "Honkai: Star Dome Railway" and other games in the Coser at the exhibition site.

Eagle Point's "Ark of Tomorrow: The End", as the only Chinese game in the exhibition, has made a lot of limelight. On the first day, 10 minutes after the museum opened, the trial team of the game was lined up at the entrance of the exhibition hall, and players still had to wait for 3 hours to play.

The main stage of the game is not very large, but it is probably one of the loudest areas in the audience, and I can hear the shouts of the Korean two-dimensional from afar. It is said that in the circle of Korean gamers, "the sea cat is a god" has become a meme.

Of course, if you want to talk about the hottest exhibition area and the most terrifying queue on the scene, it has to be NEXON, which is exhibiting as the main sponsor for the first time in 7 years. This year marks NEXON's 30th anniversary, and its second-quarter revenue has also broken records, firmly occupying the top spot in the "3N of Korea" - no longer on the same order of magnitude as Ncsoft and Netmarble.

At the scene, you can feel the influence of Big Brother Korea: not only the largest exhibition area in the museum, but also the most difficult games in the audience. You know, this time NEXON brought nearly 500 demo machines, each game has more than 120, which is several times more than other exhibitors. In order to save floor space, they also made the only trial area in the whole venue that needs to go up to the second floor.

But even then, you have to be prepared to line up for an afternoon.

Among the four NEXON games this time, the most popular are undoubtedly DNF's two IP works: "The Original Berserker: Kazan" of the Souls Like single-player action game, and "Codename: OverKill" of the 3D side-scrolling ARPG. Looking at the more than 200 computers discharged at the site, I always had the illusion of walking into a DNF-themed Internet café.

The First Berserker: Kazan trial includes two boss fights and a short section of the level flow. Although the entire framework of the game is like Souls, it may be more inclined to the logic of "Sword Star", with faster combat rhythm, cooler skill combos, and cooler graphics performance, including the setting of stance slots, which are far less important than "Wolves".

Judging from the experience of this trial alone, the game's combat feel is much better than it looks, the boss mechanics are also rich, and the team will control the pace of the battle to an appropriate degree - whenever I am about to feel repetitive and bored, the battle is basically not far from over.

Although many people on the Internet will criticize the connection between this game and the "DNF" IP is too weak, and the berserker has become a cautious warrior, if it is regarded as a stand-alone soul like, the basic quality and system framework of its product are definitely excellent. As long as the project can complete the rest of the plot performances and level processes with quality and quantity when it is officially launched in the future, it has every chance to surpass "Pinocchio's Lies" in sales.

First Berserker: Kazan

As for Codename: OverKill, it's better understood, it's the 3D version of DNF. Compared to those IP derivatives, it is logically closer to the concept of "orthodox sequel to the series". Familiar character classes, combo moves, monster farming and pushing, plus more complex performances and cooler visual effects, this is probably the "DNF" of the new era. I don't know if it will be able to take over DNF and continue its IP's reign of terror in South Korea.

Codename: OverKill

NEXON's other two games are a bit smaller in comparison. One is the casual mobile game "The Legend of the Drunken Tiger OL", which is changed from a stand-alone IP, with the familiar automatic pathfinding, automatic monster fighting, and brush upgrades; The other is the MOBA chicken game "Supervive", which was founded by former "League of Legends" executives and invested by NetEase.

"Supervive" is very complete, and the experience loop is very consistent, but it always feels like there is less excitement and a lack of explosion. I teamed up with another Korean player on the spot, fought monsters along the way, upgraded and picked up equipment, and finally ate chicken in the finals, and I didn't seem to be particularly excited.

Supervive, the source watermark

There are still a lot of single-player games in G-Star this time, or games that emphasize a single-player experience.

For example, Pearl Abyss, the developer of "Black Desert", the only game to participate in this exhibition is the single-player open world "Red Desert", and the demo provides four boss battles with story performances, and each experience will be a step up from the last.

The original Deer King is a normal brute force humanoid, and the second Reed Demon adds an illusion mechanic that requires the player to find his true form in a piece of reed. When it comes to the third boss White Horn, there are more elements such as fire and snow interaction. And the final giant boss battle also shows the combat climbing gameplay, where players have to climb on monsters to attack vital points.

I felt the intention to learn from games like The Witcher 3, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Wanda and the Colossus.

Red desert, watermark from the source

In another game, I see a shadow of the new God of War - Netmarble's Game of Thrones: King's Avenue. This game is not a pure stand-alone.,The framework is like an open-world mobile game logic that has long been popular in China.,It's mainly a single-player plot.,But there will be a multiplayer part.。 The character texture shown in this trial is not as delicate as it used to be, but more realistic and rough, if you didn't know it in advance, you would probably think that this is a stand-alone game from Europe and the United States.

Game of Thrones: King's Strip

For another example, Blue Hole, the developer of "PUBG", has also prepared a large exhibition area for the newly acquired Tango Studio and the stand-alone game "Perfect Sound Wave", with trial games and COS photo check-ins.

Of course, this is not to say that Korean game companies have suddenly woken up. In fact, these people are quite pragmatic and are just looking for new opportunities on an equal footing. Figures like Netmarble and Webzen are also working on their own Genshin Impact — Monster Gakuen: STAR DIVE and Dragon Sword.

Including Lionheart, which rose to prominence with "Odin: Rebel", while integrating "Bow and Arrow Legends" and "Vampire Survivors" into "Valhalla Survival", while making a shooting and looting game similar to "Destiny" "Codename J", and also engaged in a two-dimensional development game "Codename C" like "Horse Racing Girl".

Blue holes belong to the type of light casting net, which will bloom everywhere: AI, stand-alone, moving, multiplayer competition, love simulation...... Each game is completely different, from the look and feel to the type of track. The bald uncle AI love game outside the field is really fun.

The pragmatism of these companies is also reflected in the construction of the site: there are no bells and whistles of various special-shaped materials and the door of the exhibition area, in addition to the stage area for interaction, there is a large area of trial equipment, and there are more than 100 units at every turn. There are no Show Girls and a small number of Cosers, which is in stark contrast to this year's CJ.

This pragmatism is not difficult to understand. In the past few years, the downturn in the global game market has also had a big impact on local Korean companies, with several listed companies accounting for the majority of losses and small profits in their 2023 financial reports, and only a few companies have made good profits.

At the same time, the total number of plates in the Korean domestic market is too small, far less than that of China and Japan, and it used to be self-sufficient by MMO, but now the competition is intensifying, and the "porridge" is not enough for everyone to share. For example, NCsoft, which relies heavily on the IP of "Lineage", has already shown signs of falling behind.

So you can't start looking for new opportunities. Through the products exhibited by G-Star this time, it is not difficult to see that in addition to a few conventional popular online game tracks, stand-alone machines have become the future heavy warehouse area of Korean manufacturers.

Why? Because from the perspective of product scale, it is obvious that these products are not small experimental works.

"Red Desert" has been in the works for 7 years, with a team size of up to 250 people, with 50~80 hours of single-player content, inspired by classic stand-alone works such as "The Witcher 3", "Assassin's Creed", "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild". For its sake, Pearl Abyss has also put on hold the development of another good-looking DokeV.

《DokeV》

According to the information revealed at the earnings conference, Pearl Abyss also has very high expectations for this game: 3 million ~ 5 million buyout sales, and there will be long-term income similar to "GTA5" OL.

"The Original Berserker: Kazan" is also the biggest IP in the hands of NEXON on the top of DNF, and has gone through multiple tribulations, from the first exposure as the flagship of "Codename: BBQ" in 2018, to the difficult birth of the project in 2022, and has been grinding until now. It's not hard to imagine how big the sunk cost is.

Combined with Neowzi's "Pinocchio's Lies", Shift UP's "Sword Star", and those relatively small single-player games: "Dave the Diver", "Bone: Hero Killer", "Dodge Assassin", ...... It can be seen that everyone sees stand-alone games as a new opportunity, such as this G-Star and the independent game exhibition area in cooperation with Steam, and the trial equipment is all Steam Deck handhelds.

And the heavy single machine, or the business of Steam and console platforms, is also an important part of Hanyou's "westward expansion". The Chinese market is notoriously difficult to enter, and the Japanese market is also full of barriers. Pearl Abyss said in the earnings conference that "Red Desert" is aimed at Western players and faces the traditional console market; Netmarble's Game of Thrones: King's Avenue, apparently also focuses on IP users in Europe and the United States.

The interesting point here is that, compared with the traditional host powers such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, South Korea's transition stage is the closest to China. Even if the development process of games in China and South Korea is completely different, and the reasons and purposes for coming to this path are different, they have completed a certain convergence under the impetus of the current situation of all parties.

Although in the field of mobile games, South Korea has long been unable to keep up with the rapid development of China, but in the layout of the global PC and console markets, Korean manufacturers are actually no worse than us, not to mention that the domestic PC market has been dominated by Korean games for a long time. It is foreseeable that by next year, there will inevitably be several confrontations between China and South Korea.

This article is from Xinzhi self-media and does not represent the views and positions of Business Xinzhi.If there is any suspicion of infringement, please contact the administrator of the Business News Platform.Contact: system@shangyexinzhi.com