Pearl Abyss, Smilegate and other companies here are rushing to develop and release games for console devices such as PlayStation, to diversify their game publishing platforms and better reach out to global users amid the stagnation of the domestic mobile game market, company officials said Sunday.
They have a growing need to target gamers in North America, Europe and Japan after exports of their products to the world's largest game market, China, were blocked in March 2017 when the Chinese government suspended issuing service permits as part of the country's protest against Korea's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system.
Game companies have since moved to expand their game publishing platforms utilizing their popular intellectual properties.
Pearl Abyss launched its megahit multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) “Black Desert” for PlayStation 4 in the global market, Friday.
| “Black Desert” for PlayStation 4 released by Pearl Abyss, Friday / Courtesy of Pearl Abyss |
The company said the console game was released in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia as well as Korea, in six languages ― English, German, French, Spanish Japanese and Korean.
In March, the firm released “Black Desert” for the Xbox One.
“We will offer high-quality content and stable services to provide users with a distinguishing experience,” Pearl Abyss CEO Jung Kyung-in said.
Krafton, previously Bluehole, announced a plan Thursday to release its new role-playing game “MISTOVER” for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as well as global online game platform Steam, Oct. 10.
“We will do our upmost efforts to raise game quality for players of various game platforms,” said Han Dong-hoon in charge of the development of “MISTOVER.”
For its part, PUBG, a subsidiary of Krafton, released its mega-hit computer game “PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds” for the Xbox One in September last year and for the PlayStation 4 in December.
Another game company Smilegate, which developed online tactical first-person shooter “CrossFire” for Microsoft Windows, is now working to develop the game for console players.
The plan to release “CrossFire X” in 2020 was announced by Microsoft at the Xbox E3 Briefing held at Los Angeles in June.
The game, which has been a PC exclusive so far, has enjoyed huge popularity especially in Asia and is expected to be able to appeal users in other regions once its first console version is released.
NCSOFT is working on a project called “TL (The Lineage)” to develop a large-scale MMORPG for console devices based on Lineage characters.
While the company has yet to unveil details of the launch plan, Mirae Asset Daewoo analyst Kim Chang-kwon said, “NCSOFT is expected to carry out beta tests in the latter half of the year.”