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Why isn't Korea a player in the console wars?

A

acidviper

Banned
Do they only have PC's and Starcraft Cafe's in South Korea?

I'm wondering what is up with Korea? They are a nation with excellent broadband networks and they love playing video games - and in some cases to the death. So why didn't Microsoft, Nintendo, or Sony launch major campaigns? Is it too difficult to translate Japanese into English and the European languages then bother with Korean.

I read that S.Korean <3 Japan subway picture thread, but I mean wouldn't China hate Japan more and they love console games, well . . . er . . . pirating them anyways.
 
Too busy playing PC games I imagine. With all the reports of people keeling over playing PC games nonstop, I imagine the PC has a stranglehold in Korea.
 
Wasn't Japanese pop culture banned in Korea until recently? Maybe videogames were the same, and thus never got well established in Korea? In any case, didn't the PS2 sell over a million in Korea in a short time?

/\ too many question marks...
 
Because the PC is more popular for gaming than consoles in Korea.

Also, Japan is such a major focus simply because there are many large publishers and developers in Japan who don't want to develop for a system that doesn't sell in Japan. Korea has very few console developers (not counting outsourcing firms), from what I understand. I think Phantagram said there were only 2.
 
sp0rsk said:
because korea makes mostly, if not all, shitty games.
Click to expand...

They're improving at an incredible rate and I expect Korean dev community to make a big splash in this next generation. Just look at Phantagram and NCSoft.

As for the original topic, you can ask a similar question about the West, why don't we have channels dedicated to gaming matches? It's just the way the gaming culture has evolved, though the West is pretty unique in its diversity and balance between PCs and consoles. Look at Japan, they're almost entirely console based, so why is that? However, I do expect that to change next gen, with my previous comment about korean devs making a bigger name for themselves, we'll also see a larger number of korean console users. South Korea has the most advanced broadband network in the world, so it'll be interesting to see how the various manufacturers utilize that fact, and if 360's Live service can attract users there.
 
Hmmm apparently you can "load up" your Xbox at any Korean electronics stores and they install chips and hard-drives on the spot.

I guess they just buy the consoles and download the software.
 
Samsung makes DVD drives for the Xbox. They were reportedly working on a portable gaming device, but it turned out to be a cell phone.
 
I suppose it's a handheld and not a console, but how well did the GP32 do - hardware-wise but especially software-wise?
 
Tempy said:
I suppose it's a handheld and not a console, but how well did the GP32 do - hardware-wise but especially software-wise?
Click to expand...

It was very popular in the scene circles because the official SDK is free, and there's a succesor coming called GPX2 so I think it was quite sucessful

http://www.gpx2.com/
 
http://www.gpx2.com/product/product_main.asp

Holy fuck. I am SO getting this thing when it's out.

Replays MPEG, XviD, WMV DivX format digital contents up to 720*480 pixels and supports caption.
Watch vivid motion pictures on the high resolution 3.5" 170,000 colors TFT LCD.

CPU which has 2D accelerator enables you enjoy games anytime anywhere. Meet the exclusive GPX2 games along with abundant emulators such as MAME, SNES, Genesis, PC Engine etc

you can watch 320*240(30frame) of video file for approximately 8 hours and listen to mp3 file for approximately 14 hours (LCD off ) continuously with 2AA batteries.
 
acidviper said:
Looks like a PSP with 8 hours video playback, and no games. But someone will probably get SNES and SCUMM running on it.
Click to expand...

If you read it, you will see it is a much more competent video player than PSP. No need to convert your shit. Emulators galore. Long battery life.

Heaven.
 
callous said:
If you read it, you will see it is a much more competent video player than PSP.
Click to expand...

I think the PSP has a better quality screen/resolution. But I'm sure the GP could go from download from PC, upload to player and play much faster.

Are SD cards cheaper than Sony?
 
The GPX2 is supposed to be priced at 160 euros mainly becuase GamePark is bumping the RAM and adding a TV-out port, the launch is supposed to be at the first week of november.

Info in spanish
 
FiRez said:
The GPX2 is supposed to be priced at 160 euros mainly becuase GamePark is bumping the RAM and adding a TV-out port, the launch is supposed to be at the first week of november.

Info in spanish
Click to expand...

If its above 64 mb, WTF are they gonna need that for? PSP emulation?
 
Game-wise, it's what sporks said. Most Korean games are just downright shit. While some of them are pretty, most are awful when it comes to gameplay. Personally, it seems to me that Korean devs try to hard to emulate what is popular in America and in Japan and making those elements work in their own games. If they'd focus on making their own games with unique elements that have the gameplay to substantiate it. They've got the talent to do it, that's for sure.
 
Yes, they're certainly impressive at the art side

GE_gallery_007.jpg


GE_gallery_005.jpg
 
callous said:
you can watch 320*240(30frame) of video file for approximately 8 hours and listen to mp3 file for approximately 14 hours (LCD off ) continuously with 2AA batteries.
Click to expand...

Yah right.. I will believe it when I see it. Dont get me wrong, I own an original Gamepark 32 and I will probably get a GPX2 when it comes out, but that battery life statement is absolutely ridiculous.
 
Ooh, a new GamePark. Always was interested in one of them, then DS and PSP were announced, so I never bothered. Korean games have some serious potential, some of them look very nice, but most don't have the gameplay to match. Rhapsody of Zephyr was a decent game and the War of Genesis series looks gorgeous (though I'm not sure how it plays, anybody know?). That said, I'm predicting the next big console manufacturer will be Samsung, since they seem to be Sony's biggest competitor in the home electroncis market...
 
On paper, I'm sure Korea doesn't seem like a huge market but consider that a lot of gamers there probably get their games from Japan anyway - especally GameCube gamers. The problem is, a lot of publishers used to release English software for them (Nintendo did it with the GC), which really doesn't cut it in the end.

Hopefully full blown Korean translations come in the end (there is a huge Korean community in Japan just waiting to be taped I suppose). Population wise, they are at 48 Million, which is larger than Spain's population, but 10 and 12 Million less than Italy and France respectively. Should a Korean reunification ever occur, it would go to 70 Million IIRC.
 
Miburou said:
There are already a number of PS2 games that are fully translated in Korean (MGS2/MGS3 comes to mind. FFX, too).
Click to expand...

Yep, which is a far cry from the English w/ Korean book method Konami used for Silent Hill 2. Onimusha 3 also came out in Korea the same day as in Japan.
 
Do they only have PC's and Starcraft Cafe's in South Korea?
Click to expand...
No, there is actually a few Playstation Cafe's in Seoul these days.

Consoles still make for a very small segment of the gaming market though. Expectations are that this will continue to change with upcoming gen.
 
CVXFREAK said:
Hopefully full blown Korean translations come in the end (there is a huge Korean community in Japan just waiting to be taped I suppose).
Click to expand...

Huge? It's like 1% or so of the population. And most of those (the younger ones such as third generation and on) don't speak Korean.

I haven't been to South Korea in fifteen years, but I remember in the late 80s playing some sort of console while visiting one of my cousins in Kwangju. I have no idea who made it, but I think it was an MSX knockoff :lol.
 
Fafalada said:
No, there is actually a few Playstation Cafe's in Seoul these days.

Consoles still make for a very small segment of the gaming market though. Expectations are that this will continue to change with upcoming gen.
Click to expand...

Ya I want to see what happens when consoles become very powerful and more affordable than fully loaded PC's. But something tells me that if they are only interested in piracy, its going to be the same story. Minimal hardware sales and all pirate software.

Then again you can run Starcraft on a piece of shit PC.
 
Fafalada said:
Expectations are that this will continue to change with upcoming gen.
Click to expand...
Are you sure about that? I thought the console market in South Korea was shrinking and that wasn't expected to change.
 
CVXFREAK said:
Should a Korean reunification ever occur, it would go to 70 Million IIRC.
Click to expand...


Should a reunification occur, you can bet almost nobody will be able to EAT anymore much less play videogames. The communist government will use its new-found wealth on building nuclear weapons and such.
 
negitoro7 said:
Should a reunification occur, you can bet almost nobody will be able to EAT anymore much less play videogames. The communist government will use its new-found wealth on building nuclear weapons and such.
Click to expand...

::blinks::

PC Gaijin: 1 Million is still a lot of people, not to mention Japanese who speak Korean and the fact Korea's not too far away. I'm thankful Capcom and Konami have picked up the slack, now I hope Nintendo does too.
 
callous said:
If you read it, you will see it is a much more competent video player than PSP. No need to convert your shit. Emulators galore. Long battery life.

Heaven.
Click to expand...

will be a "curiosity" like is precedessor.my gp32 its getting dust for ages,that shit was way overrated
 
Instead of lame commentary about a lame korean console market, can we just change this thread into one of those threads where we spam pictures of korean game artwork?

Someone start with some Kim Hyung Tae stuff.
 
it's quite fun seeing a lot of westerner arguing about Sounth-Korea without any knowledge of them beside of korean people love starcraft, fistly you have to see what different between sounth korea and north korea . it's so much different there , While north korea is a communist but South korean is not. South korean is a very high technology country and you can see international brand name like Samsung , LG or Hundai (though Hundai is not that good in car industry :lol ) . As you might know that there is 1 million official playstation 2 sold there. and the console market is becoming bigger and bigger because sounth korea just open their country up for the Japanese. It's true that there are only about 48 million south korean people , but this only 48 million people almost use broadband and that's why online game is frickin huge there. and you can see some big name like NCSoft or Webzen start working on console game like PS3 or Xbox360 . It's just a matter of time.South korean won't be bigger than any big torrytories like USA,Europe or Japan . but it's surely bigger than Australia , Japanese company outsourcing people from South Korea and that can make some different in the future for all of these knowledge they get. it just a matter of time (again)

i'm not korean anyway
 
South Korea is a new player in the console market. They're not like Japan with roots in console gaming dating back over 20 years. As more and more PC devs jump ship to console, I'm sure the PC scene will become smaller and smaller, kind of ushering in consoles in traditionally PC areas.
 
For those who went to e3, WEBZEN(a korean online gaming company) TRIED(it certainly didn't work with me) to make big splash with 5 or 6 products. One of them using UE 3.0...

Everything I've seen from them looks sub-par.

They should rework their presentation next year cause I thought their products would have been more suited in Kentia Hall.
 
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