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stakeholder shenanigans
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Korea
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stakeholder shenanigans
china
Pro Gamers Carrying Olympic Torch
Time to carry the Olympic Torch. Who are you going to choose? Pro gamers! That's right, famous pro Warcraft III gamers Jae Ho "Moon" Jang and Li "Sky" Xiaofeng will be carrying it and will be joined by StarCraft players Junchun "Pj" Sha and Lei "Leilei" Shen. No clue when these gamer luminaries will be carrying the torch, but probably sometime before it reaches Beijing.
Is it me or is pro gaming is so 2007?
Moon, Sky Carry [GGL Thanks, Craig!]
korea
Korea Goes Totally Overboard With Zack & Wiki Promo
When the Wii finally launches in Korea next week, one of the games available will be Zack & Wiki. How do you sell a game like Zack & Wiki to the Korean market? With mousepads. Oh, and the promise of riches. Everyone who preorders the game will get two bits of merch: a mousepad and a small treasure chest filled with treasure-shaped candy. Except not all the chests contain candy. One hundred of them will contain a pearl necklace. A real, pearl necklace. This would be the part where I'd say I wished we could have gotten pearl necklaces with our preorders, but...hrm. I won't.[Ruliweb, via Wii Fanboy]
wii
Wii Launches In Korea On April 26
Yeah, you read that right. Launches. Those Koreans who after 18 months sans official support still care, you have our sympathies. According to Nintendo Korea's website, the console will be getting its long-overdue debut on April 26, and will retail for 220,000 Won (USD$225), albeit individually: Wii Sports will be packaged and sold separately, and will launch alongside Zack & Wiki, Wii Play, Super Swing Golf and four more unannounced titles.Nintendo Wii [Nintendo Korea, via Go Nintendo]
hellgate: london
From worst to first! Just last month, Flagship's Hellgate: London made 1UP's list of the top five botched PC game launches of all time, with regular server crashes and people being billed multiple times for premium subscriptions. The Southeast Asian launch went even worse, with Infocomm Asia Holdings nearly wiping all player progress within the first 30 days of launch. It's amazing what a few months can do, because now Hellgate: London is being touted as Korea's most successful online game launch in 3 years. There are over a million active accounts, and the game is the 9th most-played game in the country. Sheesh. "To become the most successful launch in Korea for over three years is an incredible achievement," said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios.
Hellgate: London Korea's Most Successful Launch
From worst to first! Just last month, Flagship's Hellgate: London made 1UP's list of the top five botched PC game launches of all time, with regular server crashes and people being billed multiple times for premium subscriptions. The Southeast Asian launch went even worse, with Infocomm Asia Holdings nearly wiping all player progress within the first 30 days of launch. It's amazing what a few months can do, because now Hellgate: London is being touted as Korea's most successful online game launch in 3 years. There are over a million active accounts, and the game is the 9th most-played game in the country. Sheesh. "To become the most successful launch in Korea for over three years is an incredible achievement," said Bill Roper, CEO of Flagship Studios. "This milestone wouldn't have been possible for us to achieve without the incredible support of our publishing partner, Hanbitsoft, and our dedicated community in Korea."Wow, that Hanbitsoft must have the most magical marketing team ever! Hit the jump for the press release, which actually contains the words 'Hellgate", 'Successful', and 'Launch', all in the same spot. More »
korea
Sega Korea Is Gone, That's It, Bye Bye
Further proof that Sega Sammy is going through rough financial times? As of last Friday, SEGA subsidiary, Sega Korea Ltd. is no more. According to SEGA, "The said dissolution will have not significant impact on the Company's consolidated operating results." What about Sega Korea employees? They're shit outta luck. This comes hot on the heels of Sammy Europe Limited closing late last month and abandoning plans for a Sega Sammy amusement park in Yokohama. Last year, the company lost approximately $250 million, laid off 400 employees and shuttered over 100 arcades. Not a very good year.Bye Bye Sega Korea [Sega Nerds]
rumor
Wii Launching in Korea Soon
Korea, get ready. The Nintendo Wii is finally coming. According to The Korea Times, the console should be coming this spring, but Nintendo Korea refuses to confirm the release date. Since Nintendo Korea recently applied for game ratings for Wii Sports and Wii Play (probably won't be bundled — it's not in Japan). What's more, Activision also got the country's game ratings to board to rate two of its Wii titles. All signs point to a probable release around Children's Day on May 5th. Kim Sang-yean, Nintendo Korea's PR mouthpiece says:
We will make an official announcement once we are all ready.
That's typically how it goes down.
Korea Wii Debut [The Korea Times Thanks Torokun!] [Pic]
digimon
CDC Games Bringing Digimon MMO to North America
I think I still have handfuls of Digimon cell phone charms given out by some Taiwanese convenience store chain lurking in a suitcase, but in case you prefer your Digimon experience to be on your computer and not dangling off your cell phone, CDC Games has gotten the license to bring the Digimon MMOs to North America and the PRC. CDC hopes to launch the extremely creatively named Digimon RPG in North America sometime this year, and Digimon RPG2 (that name's supposedly temporary) should be hitting the Korean market by the end of '08, as well. Full release after the jump. More »
9 Minute StarCraft II Zerg Gameplay Video
rumor
More »
StarCraft II Official Zerg Fact Sheet
You've seen the trailer, now read words. Korean game site sends us what is apparently the official Blizzard Zerg fact sheet. Tk from Korean game site Game Shot sends us the sheet. We can't verify its authenticity one hundred percent. We can verify that it is after the jump. Read on!
cdc games
Mgame, CDC Settle Yulgang Dispute
Last year, CDC Games (China) and Mgame (Korea) got into a heated legal battle over the status of Yulgang in Mainland China: CDC sued Mgame for breach of contract, and Mgame said they dropped CDC since they weren't paying per the terms of that same contract. But, just as was predicted last November, the two companies have kissed and made up:
CDC Games said Wednesday it has settled all legal disputes with South Korean online gaming company Mgame Corp. over their differences regarding the operation of the online game "Yulgang."Under the agreement, CDC Games, a unit of Hong Kong-based software and online gaming company CDC Corp., will have exclusive distribution rights to "Yulgang" in China until March 2010, with an option for a one-year extension. The companies also agreed to work together to launch "Yulgang 2.0" as quickly as possible.
If I were a Korean company, I'd think really hard before entering into any sort of contractual agreement with a Mainland company, giant potential market be damned.
guitar hero
Guitar Hero's World Domination Plans: Europe, Asia, "Multiple Instruments"
During his address at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference earlier today, Activision boss Bobby Kotick was talking up Guitar Hero's plans for world domination. While Rock Band remains focused solely on North America, Activision have outlined Guitar Hero's potential to take over not just Europe, but Asia as well. More »
china
Shanda Introducing NCsoft's Atrix To China
NCsoft's Atrix, a casual online game that NCsoft describes as "a lively action fighting game," is making its way to China after being well received in Korea last year. Shanda has gotten the exclusive license to operate Atrix on the Mainland, part of the alliance between the two Asian giants announced this past November. I wonder if having a 'strategic alliance' will preclude any of the messy and protracted legal battles we've seen between Chinese and Korean companies? You can expect the game to be popping up on PRC PCs in 2009; full press release after the jump. More »
rumor
Tabula Rasa Totally Tanked? NCSoft Austin Downsizing?
Apparently, MMORPG Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa bombed. And when games bomb, heads roll. If true, it's at NCSoft's Austin Studio! The Korea Times reports that the Austin subsidiary "has proven to be a financial disaster." Making Tabula Rasa was no cake walk, with rattailed Richard Garriott restarting the project several times, costing NCSoft added expenses. In a conference call, NCSofts chief financial officer Lee Jae-ho said:More »
Because of this disappointing result, some downsizing in Austin is inevitable. We are going to revamp our Austin development organization... I should admit that the actual result of Tabula Rasa has been disappointing... If you talk about our development cost we spent in the past several years, probably we are not making any money from this Tabula Rasa project. That should be the reality.
ncsoft
NCsoft's Chris Chung on Consoles, US Market, Direction
GameDaily sat down for a chat with Chris Chung, NCsoft's North American president, on NCsoft's future direction, their deal with Sony for the PS3, and what's next for the company in general. Despite rumors that NCsoft's Korean arm would be shifting more towards non-game products, the North American branch seems to be trucking ahead with little sign of losing steam; they're also getting ready for the leap to the console market: More »
korea
Forget Starcraft, Korea Has Xbox 360 TV Show
While neighboring Japan farts in the Xbox 360's general direction, Korea is a bit more welcoming. 360 Live Attack is a Xbox 360-centric progam on Korean TV network MBC Game, which typically shows things like reruns of Korean Starcraft matches. The show has a news portion that shows clips from new 360 games. There's apparently also a segment where the show's host logs on to Live and talks to fellow players with the Xbox Vision webcom chat. Any sort of Xbox 360 success in Korea shouldn't be a surprise: The 360 does have a lot in common with PC gaming. What's more, Xbox 360 kiosks always use SAMSUNG monitors. So, there ya go!Xbox Centric Show [Siliconera]
korea
Mario Kart Korean TV, Serious Business
Sure, Korean TV has Starcraft shows. That shouldn't come as a surprise. The country has been playing Starcraft for years! But Mario Kart racing programs? That game isn't even a year old in Korea yet! Still, as game blog Siliconera found out, Korea's airwaves are graced by Run & Run Mario Kart DS, a program that features four one-on-one matches. The show features in-game footage and color commentary from the announcers. Impressive!Mario Kart Matches [Siliconera]
crime
Teenage Boy Hacks, Steals for Princess Dress
It all started with a gothic Lolita dress. A 16 year-old Japanese gamer has been arrested by cops from Tokyo Metropolitan Police's "Hi-Tech Crimes Control Center" for stealing 36 million yen (US $325,000) worth of virtual currency that's used in online RPG Mabinogi. The teen obtained the ID and password of an employee at the Tokyo branch of Korean game company NEXON. With that info, he accessed the company's servers and filled his virtual pockets with in-game money. He allegedly converted amount 600,000 yen ($5,500) into real cash, which he spent on books and software. The teen has confessed, saying:
I originally wanted the dress worn by the princess, but I just ended up racking up a bunch of game points.
That, and getting arrested.
Online Theft [Nikkan Sports via Pink Tentacle Thanks Randy!]
