Top 10 News Stories of Korean Online Game Industry in 2011
Date: 11-09-2011 Views:
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Upon the opening of Gstar 2011 as well as the end of this year, some Korean media has just summarized the most influential ten news stories that happened in Korean online game industry during 2011. Let's take a close look.
No.1: Rating and restriction policy will take effect on Nov. 20.
From Nov. 20 2011, all Korean teenagers below sixteen will be prohibited from logging into online games between 0:00a.m. and 6:00a.m. Right before the implement, the rating and restriction policy caused an intense debate in Korea. Some argued this policy would ensure teenagers' sleeping time as well as their right to learn while others criticized that teenagers had the right to pursue hobby and it was the parents who had the right to teach their children, so this new policy violated both. In November, although an amendment to Korean Teenagers Protection Law which would be beneficial for this rating and restriction policy was denounced as violation of South Korea constitution, the Ministry of Female and Family successfully persuaded the government to implement this policy on all network gaming services except mobile games.
No.2: Online games made super tycoons.
As the first group of people who promoted online games in Korea, Kim Jung-ju, founder of Nexon, and Kim Taek Jin, CEO of NCsoft, toped Korean rich list in 2011. In sharp contrast to those of traditional enterprises, both of them started from scratch and then earned a great fortune. According to statistics, the personal asset of Kim Jung-ju has reached 2.3358 trillion KRW (about 2.1 billion US dollars) and that of Kim Taek Jin has reached 1.8251 trillion KRW (about 1.6 billion US dollars).
No.3. Social games became a booming business in Korea.
The success of Facebook also pushed online games into a new epic age. With the help of G-market (No.1 shipping site in Korea), Facebook has made 10 trillion KRW in Korea. In addition, some app stores like App Store, Naver App Store, also helped with the development of Korean social game industry.
