One of the best known, and most experienced individuals in the free-to-play video games industry, Nexon’s Min Kim is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference China. The GDC China, presented by Think Services will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center, this October 11th-13th.
Kim’s address, titled “A Fantastic Westward Journey,” is slated to be filled with colorful anecdotes and words of advice to Chinese developers in regards to Nexon’s experiences in bringing popular Korean titles, as well as the free-to-play business model that has long been associated with the genre. Kim will also focus on how microtransactions were born in Asia, and for a long time, were thriving only in this market. Not so much today. He’ll talk about how this successful business model initially received a cold shoulder in the North American and European markets, but has today become a revolutionary catalyst in these markets, citing specific examples from Nexon’s breakthrough hit, the MapleStory franchise. Keep in mind that Nexon’s MapleStory is a very strong candidate in the free-to-play benchmark category, with over 92 million users worldwide, 6 million of which reside in North America.
“Min Kim will be an exceptional and inspirational keynote speaker for China,” said Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. “Nexon’s success is proof that there is a market beyond Asia for these types of non-hardcore MMOs. Moreover, the game industry has been taken by storm with Nexon’s microtransaction business model. The Chinese audience stands to gain a tremendous account of firsthand knowledge, anecdotes and advice from Kim to take back to their companies and studios.”
And while most of us primarily know Nexon and Kim from the MapleStory franchise, Nexon was hard at work years before MapleStory’s success. The company is responsible for developing the world first internet quiz game, QPlay, and in 2004 they set a world record with 700,000 concurrent users playing Crazy Arcade BnB. In addition to MapleStory, Nexon is also the firm that developed KartRider, a title that approximately 30 percent of all South Koreans have played at one time or another.
Moving forward, Nexon is in the midst of a portal and marketing revamp that will presented under BlockParty.com. This new portal will feature a total of eight titles on US shores by the end of 2010 which will include Dungeon Fighter Online and Dragon Nest.
Assuming that Min will discuss Nexon’s entire timeline, there’s bound to be many a valuable lesson, and hopefully some highlights and reasoning behind the new revamp of Nexon’s portal offerings. Stay tuned, as the GDC China is just around the corner, and if Austin was any indication of the plethora of gaming industry news covered at the GDC conferences, the China conference might just yield a number of free-to-play/microtransactions supported games highlights.
Tags: game developers conference, Kartrider, maplestory, Min Kim, Nexon
