Futurize Korea

Pearl Research released a new report that found the Korean online games market grew over 20 percent last year:

In order for the South Korean market to keep growing, says Pearl, it'll have to contend with intensifying domestic competition, a government crackdown on web-based board games, fewer capital resources for small and independent publishers, and the correlated rise in development costs as the market becomes packed with contenders.

The Korea Association of Game Industry unveiled new industry guidelines including a new rule limiting “virtual gambling” to ten hours a day:

NHN, No.1 Web portal operator that owns an online game site Hangame, as well as other members will start to take measures on a ``voluntary basis.''

``It's about time the Korean game industry should take social responsibility in proportion to the fast growth it has achieved up to date," KAOGI Chairman Kim Jung-ho said.

Gamasutra interviewed Neople’s Yunjong Kim on their new game Dungeon Fighter Online and the state of the Korean game industry:

So, it will be a lot harder to have a game released in the market unless you are really in a big company. You can take the Japanese console game industry for example. Except for some very few global game developer companies, all those little companies in the past, they either vanished or turned into outsourcing companies for the bigger competitors

Korean PC game rooms may have a new look as the Ministry of Knowledge Economy is funding a project to have gamers play off of virtual desktops on a centralized server:

"Basically, the end user will be looking at a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor and nothing more," said a ministry official. "We believe that PC bang could reduce their energy use by around 30 percent this way. Needless to say, the gaming rooms will be a lot less noisy and device maintenance will be cheaper and easier."

A PC bang that has 50 computers could save about 54.7 megawatts of electricity per year should it replace its computers with a server, which reduces its power bill by about 5.47 million won (about $4,300), the ministry said.