Korea tells us a important lesson, piracy kills developpers.

Yes and developers will cry if Koreans continue to pirate.

Korea should be renamed Ko-Goldfarming

So what north korea? does Kim Jong II like the Wii or does he pwn people in halo 3?

Its talking bout South Korea lolz. And what with North Korea being a fake communist country its banned all games consoles most certainly. But hey, big rocket go boom on America button is way more fun than Links Crossbow Training

The 360 is the biggest console in SK, mostly due to online and Korea's fantastic internet.

The DS is catching on HUGE with people though - tons of my kids have them and are always trying to figure out what my PSP is.

So South Koreans are ungluing themselves off Starcraft?

You won't see consoles taking off until they're more common in baangs (korean game cafes). Seriously, everyone who games in korea just goes to baangs, and home gaming is virtually non-existent in comparison. Although I am given to understand that home gaming is rising, it still represents a tiny fraction of what goes on in South Korea.

Is 'Maple Story' the only Korean game that's big in the States, or is Korea currently a 'one hit wonder'?

@blackadvent:

Looks like it for now, but I doubt it will stay that way for long, seeing how many of those free MMOs are being localized from Korea these days, who knows, maybe oe that's actually awesome AND free will pop up one day.

Korea has a history of low spec computer games because people weren't able to afford the fancy consoles that Japan is known for. It's good to see them weening themselves off PCs and exploring other platforms, but with the state of PC gaming we need all the help we can get. Starcraft is so popular because almost any semi-modern computer can run it.

I am SO jealous of their insane internet speeds though :(

So in other words games for people that hate themselves?

The DS is becoming a lot more popular in Korea. Now I see several kids with them on the subways while I didn't see any when I visited the country in the summer. Myeongdong and the COEX Mall, two hot spots for teenagers and young adults, are littered with Nintendo DS ads. Nintendo even has its own store in the COEX Mall that was pretty crowded.

It's hard to pinpoint why PC gaming is so popular. If I had to guess, it's an amalgam of their technological process and desire for social interaction. Korea is a very technologically advanced country, and internet social networking was popular in Korea before it was in America (Cyworld, their version of myspace, launched in 1999). PC bangs (gaming centers) are fun places to go to because they are nicely furnished and have food along with cheap entertainment. It's enjoyable by yourself and with friends. I don't think consoles can provide that sort of sociable atmosphere.

I'm looking for the name of a popular Korean game all the guys play in the PC-bangs recently. It has almost an identical HUD to Starcraft, but it's a more more fluid, animated game that has that Starcraft strategy map to the t, however most maps I see have RPG elements like a custom. Huge monsters, large magic spells, etc. Anyone?

I've been in Korea for 2.5 years, and I don't know one Korean male in his mid-20s that doesn't play Winning Eleven on PS2, and as Forkball already stated, there is mass proliferation of the DS here as well. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the R4 and similar devices seem to be ubiquitous as well.

Piracy happens in a lot of countries, even on a larger scale (China, U.S.), but that doesn't stop developers from making money. I'm more inclined to attribute failure to games that suck or trying to make money while offering free games (or both).

As for foreign companies, companies like Nintendo weren't interested in the Korean market until recently. Of course by then, most of the gamers in Korea were glued to the PC, which makes Blizzard happy.

@blackadvent:
It depends what you consider big...
I haven't tried Maple Story, but I've played Lineage 2, Ragnarok Online, Gunbound, and Pangya (Albatross 18 / Super Swing Golf). It's not big here, but I've played a ton of DJ Max, and a little Pump it Up, and Audition too. Hopefully I'll get to try Mabonogi soon when it comes out here.

There are a lot of big Korean games that have a small following here. If you can't tell by the artwork, I find most of them use a similar webpage template for their official sites...

More fit for Korean gamers huh? Should we use Korean mmorpgs (100% grind) to estimate what kind of game that is? I'm not entirely sure I'd want to play a normal game that is like that.