Korea Gets MMORPG Success, Xbox Antipathy

Thanks to GameSpot for their story revealing Korean MMORPG Lineage II has racked up significant amounts of initial subscribers in its native country. According to the article about the Unreal-engine PC sequel, "in the game's first five days in release, publisher NCsoft has tallied more than 130,000 paid users." However, SirBruce's subscription page points out that many subscribers to the initial, 4-million subscriber Lineage: The Blood Pledge "play in 'PC baangs', Internet cybercafes in [South] Korea that buy Lineage access from the company and then sell it at hourly rates to customers", making subscriber comparisons with games like Star Wars Galaxies more difficult. Elsewhere, GI.Biz reveals the PlayStation 2 is the most popular console in Korea, although only 600,000 strong, with 92.5 percent preferring it over the 60,000-selling Xbox, as "...players cited the lack of Korean language software and poor customer service as their key problems with the Xbox."

Comments

Which Korea?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".

Re:Which Korea?

[Rayonic]

There are two nations called "Korea". The article is sloppy when it refers to events in Korea without saying which one. Of course we know they don't have Xbox in North Korea, so it must mean South Korea. But next time, don't leave off half of the country's name. It is like an article about the United Kingdom referring to just "The Kingdom".

Correction: The word "south" is nowhere in the title of the country. Technically, it's the "Republic of Korea". North Korea, on the other hand, is supposedly the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea".

I can't really say that any confusion between the two is possible, though. You just have to remember which one has internet access, electicity, food, democracy, prosperity, etc, etc.

Blantant bias?

[MMaestro]

'It's not like Sony has a home advantage in Korea in these respects, since it needs to translate its games into Korean just as Microsoft does, and these results don't bode well for Microsoft's plans to release more western content in the Far East.'

No home advantage in Korea compared to Microsoft? I know (South) Korea and Japan are totally different countries but theres bound to be some kind of pre-set friendly relationship between the two country's culture. That'd be like saying Microsoft doesn't have a home advantage in Canada or Mexico.

Re:Blantant bias?

[Yokaze]

> pre-set friendly relationship
Due to some historic circumstances (occupation of Korea pre-and while WWII), the goverment of (South) Korea did/does not exactly encourage Japanese imports, which have cultural strings attached. (Music, TV, films, computer games).

Here some headlines from Asahi Shinbun (in English):
Further easing of Japan culture ban
Dated: September 17, 2003

This stance (banning Japanese culture) may not reflect the public opinion. Still, it is not something I've heard about Canada/US/Mexico.

Re:Blantant bias?

[grahamwest]

We don't make games for Korea on any of the platforms, but this is my understanding of the situation.

Sony localised the PS2 browser for Korean and provides support for game companies to release Korean-language versions of their games (eg. providing 'approved' Korean-language messages for things like "Now saving. Do not remove MEMORY CARD (PS2) in MEMORY CARD slot 1, reset or switch off console." As such PS2 games released in Korea are well-localised. Microsoft, on the other hand, is simply releasing English-language systems and software in Korea.

I am under the impression English is prevalent in Korea but I have a hard time believing Korean gamers won't choose Korean-language games over English ones.

Microsoft was talking about releasing western games in Japan without localising them. The idea was that, since the market was small and almost exclusively very hardcore gamers, they wouldn't mind the games being in English. I don't know if they are still planning to do this.

Re:Yes, but....

[PainKilleR-CE]

Just like there are two China's: the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. One is just called China, typically (or rarely Red China or Mainland China) and the other is called Taiwan.

and no one confuses these, either, because they refer to Taiwan as Taiwan. The country hasn't been part of China (recently) long enough for there to be much confusion there.

Of course, I tend to agree with calling South Korea 'South Korea', but generally when I read anything about any kind of economy in Korea, I take it to be South Korea. That being said, being nitpicky about it is like being nitpicky about people outside the UK referring to it as England, the UK, Britain, etc., even though there are some differences there.

Then again, I don't like being called a 'yank' for being a US citizen, either, especially given the connotation for those of us living in the South (though I was raised in neither the South nor the North; I recently found out that a certain holiday is called (Robert E.) Lee (Stonewall) Jackson (Martin Luther) King Day in this part of the US and found it to be a rather interesting choice).

Korea and MS don't get along.

[Blackknight]

This is the same reason that Hangul Word Processor is far, far more popular than Word over there. The Korean language support in Word sucks.

Now the wait for Liniage II for the Mac in the US

[falcon5768]

Honestly playing other MMORPG in comparison to Liniage, Liniage has so many advantages to the ones here.

The biggest is I can use a 56k modem and not worry about major slowdowns, it runs with such a low bandwith that I have had my gf's connection drop to 30k and still have it run great.

Likewise while its graphics aren't cutting edge, but it works for the game (its graphics can be likened to Diablo 1) it helps with slower computers and is not so hardware dependant as a lot of these other games which practically force you to buy a better computer

Plus the whole blood pledge aspect really works well for the game, and forces you to talk and be active, not some lone gamer which I have noticed has statrted to be the case with other games with companies forcing to get more people playing.

OK enough being a fan boy, what I would like to know is how is nintendo doing in the market? I dont find it too bias since I can see why people would be oppose to xBox with it being a US system that doesnt have much history in Asia, no mater how good it is. Honestly anyone who has read the book "The Complete History of Video Games," can see how gamers have likes and dislikes that go far from just being whats better. It can be also how much the public likes the company, how many good games there are (one is never enough) and even as wierd as how it looks. Honestly my first impression of the Xbox (aside from the oh great heres Microsoft buying the video gamming world since no one is insain enough to code for it) was that it looks like a peice of shit. The gamecube wasnt great, but I can get it in a color I like and likewise matched my decore, and the Playstation 2 had a upscale look that while a gaming system, also didnt call too much attention to its self next to my TV and VCR eespecially when I had a date over and decided to pop in a DVD..

Can I play Lineage, if so how?

[truffle]

I want to play this game. I'm in Canada. Where can I buy it?