Game Industry Engages in Full-Scale Battle with Chinese-Made Games in the New Year

Major Mobile New Releases Like 'Dungeon & Fighter Mobile' and 'Seven Knights 2' Launch

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] In the Year of the Rat, the gaming industry is gearing up for a showdown with Chinese games by launching new mobile titles. Last year, Chinese games aggressively flooded the domestic market, encroaching on app market revenue rankings. In response, highly anticipated titles like NCSoft's "Lineage 2M" and Nexon's "V4" succeeded in gaining popularity, restoring some pride, and expectations are rising for new domestic mobile releases in the first half of this year.

According to mobile app ranking analysis site Gamevolution on the 1st, among the top 10 Google Play revenue rankings, six are domestic mobile games led by Lineage 2M, while four are Chinese games, showing a close competition. Thanks to the performance of Lineage 2M and V4, released in November last year, the market dominance that had been lost to Chinese games for a while has been somewhat regained.

Lineage 2M, along with its sibling "Lineage M," has firmly held the 1st and 2nd places in Google Play revenue rankings for a month, and V4 has maintained positions between 3rd and 5th for over a month, demonstrating the strength of domestic mobile games. Netmarble's "Blade & Soul Revolution" and "Lineage 2 Revolution" have consistently ranked 7th and 8th respectively, staying in the upper revenue tiers, while Pearl Abyss's "Black Desert Mobile" is also loved by domestic and international gamers, ranking 9th.

In the first half of this year, several major domestic mobile new releases are scheduled one after another. Nexon is accelerating its momentum by reviving popular PC games such as "Dungeon & Fighter Mobile (tentative)" and "The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon" for mobile platforms. Nexon is also planning to release "CounterSide" soon. Netmarble, which had been quiet without new releases in the latter half of last year, will consecutively launch titles like "Seven Knights 2," utilizing the intellectual property (IP) of its flagship game "Seven Knights," and "A3: Still Alive," which combines battle royale and massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genres.

Meanwhile, attention is also focused on whether China will resume issuing game licenses (distribution permits) this year. With Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang visiting Korea consecutively this year, there is speculation about the lifting of the Hallyu ban, raising expectations for license issuance. Since March 2017, due to the fallout from the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) conflict, the Chinese government has not issued licenses for Korean games, resulting in domestic game companies being unable to export games to China for over two and a half years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.