Korean Gaming Still Dominated By Blizzard

Thanks to the Gaming-Age regulars for pointing to a Korea Herald article discussing the dominance of Blizzard titles in the Korean videogame charts. Reports of Blizzard's immense popularity in South Korea have always been rife, but a survey of the Korean charts over the last 89 weeks confirmed that "...games by American company Blizzard Entertainment topped the weekly sales chart for 75 weeks." During the period in question, "'Starcraft: Battle Chest' ranked No. 1 for 24 weeks, 'Warcraft 3' for 23 weeks, 'Diablo 2:Lord of Destruction' for 21 weeks and 'Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne' for seven weeks.", while the Korea Herald noted that "...among local games, only three made it within the top five so far this year."

Korea's population is shrinking ... coincidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly RTS and RPG games have had an antisocialization effect on South Korean males. This antisocialization has led to an entire generation of males that don't know how to deal with females, so instead they retreat to their fantasy worlds.

History will show that Blizzard software will be to blame for the extinction of the Korean peoples.

Korea's Shrinking Population [bbc.co.uk]

Re:Korea's population is shrinking ... coincidence

[bmyers]

It was FUNNY! Not a Troll! geez, some people have no sense of humor, I guess...

That's not a troll

[stoolpigeon]

that's funny. dumbass mod

Re:Korea's population is shrinking ... coincidence

[splerdu]

therefore MMORPGs are the last hope of the species! re-introduce social interaction into a form the "de-socialized" are familiar with =)

In other news...

[Apreche]

The rest of the gaming world still dominated by those who greatly desire Korean games. Demands still not met.

If they like our Blizzard games so much, we should cut them off. I've seen a few Korean students playing Korean games and such in the labs around campus. Holy Crap! There are like a zillion awesome video games, mostly rpg types, that we just don't have here. And apparently I can't play them because I don't have a KSSN. So, I say we cut them off of Battle.net until I get some Shining Lore [shininglore.com].

That link was useful

[spineboy]

if I read Korean.

Honestly, that kinda of cutsie-poo looking stuff probably won't do to well in the US - just because most guys aren't going to feel to macho playing with these characters that look like dolls for 6 year old girls. Hell I even feel kinda wimpy just having it up on my browser.

But seriuosly, the artwork will have to be redesigned if it is going to sell in the US market - maybe in ten years when Americans are more used to seeing this kinda stuff, but not right now. We're still into splatter

Re:In other news...

[alphaseven]

There are like a zillion awesome video games, mostly rpg types, that we just don't have here.

I was just looking at some Korean RPGs, like Magna Carta [magnacarta.co.kr], looks fascinating. They have imitated the look of the Final Fantasy games pretty well. I'm surprised Korean companies haven't tried releasing many English versions of these rpg games.

regarding the Blizzard games thing...

[Dreadlord]

Korean players are know to be the best players in Blizzard games in the world, especially Warcraft III and Starcraft, the reason I guess is that they only play Blizzard games, and play them a lot.

No change is news now?

[Thedalek]

So now it's newsworthy to mention that something no one expected to change hasn't changed? "Oceans Still Full of Water?"

Koreans embrace PC games in general (and RTS games specifically) because they aren't Japanese. The Koreans have a huge grudge against Japan socially, and avoid Japanese media and technology like the plague. There are probably exceptions, but they are in the minority.

I would consider this newsworthy if it were the complete opposite story: "Korean Game Market Suddenly Dominated by Japan" or "Pachinko Parlor Opens/Arcade Huge Success in Downtown Seoul."

Heck, it might be somewhat newsworthy to mention that the Japanese PC game market is still dominated by Hentai (which literally translates as "pervert") games. At least then a lot of the /. readers would want to know more.

Teamwork Sole-play?

[MMaestro]

Korea does have an embargo against Japanese products (hence no PS2 or GCs there) so computer gaming is the only choice. Now what I'm thinking is hat Korean players are somewhat opposite of U.S. players who relish one-man gaming and FFAs. After all, how often do you see team battles in Starcraft or team exp gaining in Diablo 2? (Ok maybe not for Starcraft since the AI is fairly weak (if you play against the AI in Starcraft on a map which virtually unlimited resources, sometimes they'll stop attacking you completely leaving themselves vunerable))

Course I have no statistics or evidence to prove this..

Re:Teamwork Sole-play?

[Guppy06]

"Korea does have an embargo against Japanese products"

I don't think it's an embargo per se so much as a cultural aversion towards all things Japanese. Kinda like how Slavs or Jews might not be all that interested in German-produced goods.

Re:Teamwork Sole-play?

[Provolo]

Korea does have an embargo against Japanese products (hence no PS2 or GCs there)

PS2 Korea [scek.co.kr]

Research before you type blindly. Gamecubes and PS2s definitely exist, and its been a while since the Korean government lifted its moderate ban on Japanese content.

Re:Teamwork Seoul-play?

[LeBlueBoy]

I, for one, welcome our new PC gaming overlords.

korea and console gaming

[bugbeak]

it's true that korean gamers tend to spend more time in front of a PC rather than a TV, but times are changing. ps2 is being heavily pushed into the market, and almost all of them are localized. there are cubes, xboxes and ps2s, they're just not as popular as other places, say, the USA.