Small Games to Play Big at G-Star Show

``Don't put your eggs in one basket'' is the Korean game companies' new catch phrase. Having learned from previous experiences about the danger of making a single, big investment in a blockbuster game, firms are opting for having a lineup of small, casual games that deal with diverse subjects such as life itself.

Major game publishers such as Nexon and NHN are to show off their new games at G-Star game expo starting this Thursday at KINTEX, Ilsan. So far, the list of new games gives the impression that the firms will try to attract crowds with the quantity of new games, if not with their quality.

Nexon, the publisher of the popular ``Kart Rider'' racing game, is to showcase 11 games at the expo including seven new ones. It is the largest number being introduced by a single company.

``We're happy to unveil this many games that we have ambitiously prepared,'' said Min Yong-jae, chief marketing officer of Nexon. ``We are going to provide endless joy to visitors during G-Star.''

Each of the 11 games from Nexon are rather small in scale compared to the firm's previous blockbuster games such as ``Zera,'' which turned out to be a massive disaster last year, but have distinctive features. For example, ``SP1'' is a multiplayer online role-playing game with the historic background of the United States and Europe of the 1950s. Another eye-catching game ``Husky Express'' is a dog sleigh race in the arctic.

Other unique idea includes ``Bubble Fighter'' which features cartoon characters whose job is to shoot each other with water guns. In ``Trash Buster,'' the weapons turn out to be vacuum cleaners ― they suck in everything on the screen, even a passenger car or a house, which will give ``eccentric'' fun to users, according to the company.

Other firms are also trying to diversify their portfolios with a range of small, fun games instead of a few blockbusters.

NCsoft’s ‘AION’NCsoft, the largest game company in Korea in terms of revenue, is to show four games at this year's G-Star.

The centerpiece of its exhibition booth is ``Aion,'' an online role-playing game that falls into the category of the traditional blockbuster. But other smaller games such as ``Point Blank'' and ``Punch Monster'' are to receive equal headlines at the show, a developer of the firm said.

``We focused on `Aion'' only last year. But this year, we are treating other games as important as Aion,'' he said.

Visitors may find more fun once they get out of the booths of the big companies. Studio 9, a game developer for the Xbox 360 console, will set up karaoke booths for its game ``Super Star.'' Ntreeb, a company famous for the popular golf game ``Pangya,'' will unveil a horse racing game named ``Project Ellis.''

There are brand new genres of games to be introduced to Korea for the first time. A fire fighter game, which was developed for educational purposes by the Korea Game Industry Agency, will be unveiled, while IR Robot, a toy robot manufacturer, will display a radio-controlled robot football game.

Social-networking is also a new branch of games getting more attention these days. A Swedish firm named Mindark AB is to bring a virtual economy platform called Entropia Universe. The game, similar to ``Second Life'' in the United States, provides users with a chance to establish their own companies and do various businesses with each other. There is even a cyber currency called PED, which can be cashed into real-world money.

Diversification is a new buzzword on the Korean game scene. The industry has been heavily dependent on two categories of games. The first is the MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) where thousands of users are connected to the same computer server and form a virtual community. In most cases the MMORPGs were based on the medieval European mythological characters such as dragons, dwarfs, fairies, axe-swirling warriors and witches and wizards.

But selling these types of games apparently isn't as profitable as before because there have been too many similar games made by Korean and foreign firms over the past 10 years while the number of hard-core gamers apparently stopped growing in developed nations.

The second category of popular games are the so-called casual games. It is this type of game that has continuously gained momentum over the past few years. Like ``Kart Rider,'' the games can be played in a short period of time without elaborate skills or knowledge, thus firms have found it easier to lure females and a younger audience with them.

One of few blockbuster MMORPGs to be announced at G-Star is one to be imported by NHN. The company has kept the name and the nature of the game a secret, but rumors are that it will be the ``Lord of the Rings Online,'' the online game version of the famous fantasy novel and movie.

``We are inviting one of the world's most prestigious game developers and one of the best-known game franchises,'' said a public relations official of NHN, refusing to give further information.

The ``Lord of the Rings Online'' was produced by Massachusetts-based company Turbine. It was picked as the best game of 2007 at the Golden Joystick Awards last month in the United States. NHN is likely to be the Korean publisher of the game, sources said.