South Korea’s mid-tier game makers Kakao Games Corp. and Wemade Co. are on an upswing and expanding, while traditional majors Nexon, NCSoft and Netmarble pale as their new releases are met with cold response.

While reporting best quarterly results for the July-September period on Wednesday, Kakao Games announced mid to long-term business strategy dubbed “Beyond Korea, Beyond Game”, pledging to roll out new titles worldwide to tap the global markets.

The company has also unveiled its vision to expand beyond its game business in the areas of sports, metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT).

The company aims to create synergy effects by combining tangible and intangible assets of software unit Neptune and various contents under the Kakao family.

Kakao Games’ developing subsidiary Friends Games is working to develop a NFT exchange dedicated to sports, game and metaverse, according to Kakao Games CEOs Nam Gung-hun and Cho Gye-hyun.

Kakao Games disclosed on Tuesday that its operating profit for the third quarter surged 101 percent on year to 42.7 billion won ($36.11 million) and sales 210 percent on year to 466.2 billion won thanks to the smash hit of its first in-house label “Odin: Valhalla Rising.”

Local mid-sized game publisher Wemade also reported record operating income and revenue on the back of the global success of its massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Mir 4.”

Wemade announced on Tuesday that it delivered an operating profit of 17.4 billion won in the July-September period. Sales jumped 167 percent on year to 63.3 billion won, enabling the company to swing to profit.

“Mir 4,” released in August in over 170 countries around the world, boasts unique “play-to-earn” system powered by blockchain technology that allows users to convert in-game resources into crypto assets. The company envisions 100 blockchain-based game titles by the end of next year to build its own blockchain ecosystem.

By Hwang Soon-min and Lee Soo-min

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]