Korea Gets MMORPG Success, Xbox Antipathy

Thanks to GameSpot for their story revealing Korean MMORPG Lineage II has racked up significant amounts of initial subscribers in its native country. According to the article about the Unreal-engine PC sequel, "in the game's first five days in release, publisher NCsoft has tallied more than 130,000 paid users." However, SirBruce's subscription page points out that many subscribers to the initial, 4-million subscriber Lineage: The Blood Pledge "play in 'PC baangs', Internet cybercafes in [South] Korea that buy Lineage access from the company and then sell it at hourly rates to customers", making subscriber comparisons with games like Star Wars Galaxies more difficult. Elsewhere, GI.Biz reveals the PlayStation 2 is the most popular console in Korea, although only 600,000 strong, with 92.5 percent preferring it over the 60,000-selling Xbox, as "...players cited the lack of Korean language software and poor customer service as their key problems with the Xbox."

Which Korea?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".

Re:Which Korea?

[Rayonic]

There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".

Correction: The word "south" is nowhere in the title of the country. Technically, it's the "Republic of Korea". North Korea, on the other hand, is supposedly the "De

Re:Yes, but....

[PainKilleR-CE]

Just like there are two China's: the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. One is just called China, typically (or rarely Red China or Mainland China) and the other is called Taiwan.

and no one confuses these, either, because they refer to Taiwan as Taiwan. The country hasn't been part of China (recently) long enough for there to be much confusion there.

Of course, I tend to agree with calling South Korea 'South Korea', but generally when I read anything about any kind of economy in Korea,

Blantant bias?

[MMaestro]

'It's not like Sony has a home advantage in Korea in these respects, since it needs to translate its games into Korean just as Microsoft does, and these results don't bode well for Microsoft's plans to release more western content in the Far East.'

No home advantage in Korea compared to Microsoft? I know (South) Korea and Japan are totally different countries but theres bound to be some kind of pre-set friendly relationship between the two country's culture. That'd be like saying Microsoft doesn't have a hom

Re:Blantant bias?

[Yokaze]

> pre-set friendly relationship
Due to some historic circumstances (occupation of Korea pre-and while WWII), the goverment of (South) Korea did/does not exactly encourage Japanese imports, which have cultural strings attached. (Music, TV, films, computer games).

Here some headlines from Asahi Shinbun (in English):
Further easing of Japan culture ban [asahi.com]
Dated: September 17, 2003

This stance (banning Japanese culture) may not reflect the public opinion. Still, it is not something I've heard about Canada/US/Mex

Re:Blantant bias?

[grahamwest]

We don't make games for Korea on any of the platforms, but this is my understanding of the situation.

Sony localised the PS2 browser for Korean and provides support for game companies to release Korean-language versions of their games (eg. providing 'approved' Korean-language messages for things like "Now saving. Do not remove MEMORY CARD (PS2) in MEMORY CARD slot 1, reset or switch off console." As such PS2 games released in Korea are well-localised. Microsoft, on the other hand, is simply releasing Englis

Korea and MS don't get along.

[Blackknight]

This is the same reason that Hangul Word Processor is far, far more popular than Word over there. The Korean language support in Word sucks.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Can I play Lineage, if so how?

[truffle]

I want to play this game. I'm in Canada. Where can I buy it?