Why Korea Matters: Learning from Difference

Korean games (non-Japanese games in general, actually) tend to get a lot of flack — ‘They’re all the same!’ ‘They’re so badly made!’ ‘Just look at them!’ — but Brandon Sheffield cautions that we ought to be keeping a closer on eye on the Korean market. With different development strategies, different working environments, and different players, there is stuff to be learned from Korean companies taking steps to expand westward:

The fact is, Western developers have ignored, discounted, or simply not known about the South Korean market for far too long, and now we’re face to face with reality. Aside from World of Warcraft, they’ve taken a genre we invented, and perfected it to the point where an online dance game like T3 Entertainment’s Audition has tens of millions of subscribers worldwide.

That’s rather a lot of people, and we’re ignoring it. When I first noticed that company in 2002, they were making a game called Raphael that was so rudimentary as to almost be freeware.

Korea is starting to get more attention, but perhaps the most impressive thing is how well some Korean companies have done with their entrance into other markets — it’ll be interesting to see how the gaming landscape changes over the next couple of years.

Why You Should Care About Korea [GameSetWatch]