President Moon Jae-in tests a mobile game. [Yonhap News Photo]
South Korea's gaming industry is on alert against a bold foray by China's major online and mobile game developer, Yoozoo (Youzu) GAMES, which will set up a branch in Seoul next month to target local clients immersed in massively multiplayer online role-playing games.
Yoozoo, which produces games both for its home and overseas markets, said it would set up a South Korean branch near Seoul's Gangnam district. It's not a joint venture but an independent branch, demonstrating the company's confidence about its business in South Korea's competitive gaming market.
"South Korea will be Yoozoo's fourth overseas market after Germany, the United States and India," a Yoozoo official said. "Starting with our mobile games, we plan to expand our business into diverse fields such as movies and online shopping malls."
Yoozoo, founded in 2009 by Lin Qui, is a developer and publisher of online and mobile games, primarily massively multiplayer online games, in China and North America. Its most popular international game is "League of Angels", a browser-based MMORPG that began as a stand-alone game in China but later was adapted for a growing international market.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are a combination of role-playing video games and massively multiplayer online games in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.
MMORPGs are now popular in South Korea, but Yoozoo plans to provide diversified services.
South Korean rivals are on guard as Lin seeks a 'One Source Multi-Use' (OSMU) company that uses the intellectual property of games and reproduces them into various media such as movies and fashion.
South Korea's gaming industry used to be the target of aggressive mergers and acquisitions by Chinese investors on expectations that they would dominate global markets. But Chinese investments have drastically slowed in recent years, and experts say Chinese game developers, backed by abundant funds, are now more skillful than their South Korean counterparts.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
![[CES2024] Samsung to showcase new gaming monitors at CES](https://image.ajunews.com/content/image/2024/01/04/20240104103537669471.jpg)
