Korean devs report a burst of player interest in single-player console and PC games

[John Elden Ring]

• South Korean game developers have traditionally focused on releasing free-to-play online titles on PC and mobile devices.
• But after a surprise slate of single-player successes, devs say that trend may be shifting.

The traditionally online and free-to-play-based game industry of South Korean game development may be shifting gears. According to a recent report from Wesley LeBlanc in the final issue of Game Informer, developers at multiple studios like Round8 Studio, Shift Up, and Pearl Abyss are seeing signs that players at home and abroad are attracted to single-player experiences on PC and console.

LeBlanc reached out to developers after seeing these companies releasing single-player games like Round8 Studio's Lies of P, Shift Up's Stellar Blade (published by Sony Interactive Entertainment), and Pearl Abyss' upcoming Crimson Desert. Even longtime online and mobile publishers are spreading their platform wings, with Nexon subsidiary Neople soon releasing the single-player The First Berserker: Khazan, and NCSoft bringing the free-to-play PC game Throne and Liberty to consoles in September.

Developers at these companies confirmed to LeBlanc that the trend is real—and more of them are joining the "traditional" console and PC market sometimes thought to be calcified here in the West.

But why are they making the jump? There wasn't one clear answer—instead a constellation of factors seem to be driving the shift. But those stars all orbit the same point: that players buying games on console and PC are hungry for fresh experiences.

South Korean developers see market shifts across the globe and at home​

The immediate economic argument for these games is that they open up new overseas markets for South Korean developers. Round8 Studio CEO Jason Park told Game Informer that there are a "fixed number of people" who play single-player games on console and PC in South Korea, and that number "won't change." He said Round8 made Lies of P for a global market.

Shift Up CEO and Stellar Blade director Kim Hyung-tae partly agreed with Park, explaining only 5 percent of the PlayStation 5 exclusive Stellar Blade's sales came from his home country, and console share in the country isn't growing. He does think the market for single-player PC games can grow, which is why the company is considering a PC port for Stellar Blade.
Others do see market movement inside the region. Lies of P director Jin Won Choi said a major indicator he saw was the shift in what games students are making at universities. At a recent showcase, only one out of 17 student groups was making a mobile game.

Hyung-tae said he thinks the shift inside South Korea correlates to an age and income shift in mobile players. Because popular mobile games in the country are so heavily designed around grind-based monetization, older players with lots of money to burn are more likely to play them. He referred to this demographic as being "middle-aged."
"That's continued for the past 20 years, and players have become older, so it's harder to acquire new and younger users for...games," he told Game Informer.

Pearl Abyss America CEO Jeonghee Jin disagreed with the idea that console growth in South Korea is inevitably stalled, estimating that the market share has grown 4-5 percent since the launch of the PlayStation 4. South Korean game developers didn't start making console games until that generation, she said.
Jin's emphasis on developer experience may hold weight. Hyung-tae explained to Game Developer that Stellar Blade's development was "difficult," and that the team had to learn much of the process "from scratch."

Whatever's driving the growing single-player market, developers and game industry professionals have plenty of reasons to refresh their thinking about South Korean game development.

Normally this would be where we we would link to Game Informer's original reporting. However GameStop did not publish this story on the outlet's website before shutting it down, meaning it is only readable in the final print edition of Game Informer. If you wish to read the rest of LeBlanc's report, we urge you to seek out a physical copy.

Source

 

[YeezyDude]

It's true tbh and I can't wait to see what's next from the Korean developers!

 

[Evilnemesis8]

It's true tbh and I can't wait to see what's next from the Korean developers!

It doesn't change much for a lot of talent, but I'm happy that game designers over there get to work more on design without doing double duty as monetary designers at the same time. When every facet of your game needs to take into account the game economy, it must be quite stifling.

 

[YeezyDude]

It doesn't change much for a lot of talent, but I'm happy that game designers over there get to work more on design without doing double duty as monetary designers at the same time. When every facet of your game needs to take into account the game economy, it must be quite stifling.

Yeah it's good news so far... But I agree I hope stuff gets economically better though in the next 2-5 years or something.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like a writer (LeBlanc) reached out to a small numer of Korean developers after seeing Lies of P and Stellar Blade release.

Stellar Blade sold 1 million copies.
Lies of P sold sold 1 million copies.

Were these really so successful that we can say there's a "burst" of interest in single player again? Either I'm an idiot (quite possible) or this is some awful reporting.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like a writer (LeBlanc) reached out to a small numer of Korean developers after seeing Lies of P and Stellar Blade release.

Stellar Blade sold 1 million copies.
Lies of P sold sold 1 million copies.

Were these really so successful that we can say there's a "burst" of interest in single player again? Either I'm an idiot (quite possible) or this is some awful reporting.

Just go back 5 years and ask yourself, what South Korean game being released wasn't a PC only MMO or a mobile game?
It's not just about Lies of P and Stellar Blade(and The First Descendant also being multiplat and worlwide).

It's laid out very clearly here:

LeBlanc reached out to developers after seeing these companies releasing single-player games like Round8 Studio's Lies of P, Shift Up's Stellar Blade (published by Sony Interactive Entertainment), and Pearl Abyss' upcoming Crimson Desert. Even longtime online and mobile publishers are spreading their platform wings, with Nexon subsidiary Neople soon releasing the single-player The First Berserker: Khazan, and NCSoft bringing the free-to-play PC game Throne and Liberty to consoles in September.

Developers at these companies confirmed to LeBlanc that the trend is real—and more of them are joining the "traditional" console and PC market sometimes thought to be calcified here in the West.

Just by memory, there's also DokeV by Pearl Abyss(although we haven't heard anything from this game in years, which isn't that uncommon for SK publishers)

I mean, even you're avatar is one of those multiplat projects, the 2nd game by Embark Studios after The Finals which are both published by Nexon.

Those developers also talk to other teams(some of them have a lot of employees) as well as other developers from other Studios, they can speak that this wave is continuing, although they can't talk specifics. It's like how all the fighting game devs in Japan talk to one another while going for drinks. They know a lot of things, and they'll speak if you ask and won't divulge the particulars.

Being a WoW and MMO player for the last like 20 years, I can tell you that yeah, this has been noticeable and considering future releases, it doesn't look like it's stopping unless industry trends over there shift again.
I imagine part of this is initiative is because they feel like their local market is capped and growth has to come from outside of SK/Asia.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Just go back 5 years and ask yourself, what South Korean game being released wasn't a PC only MMO or a mobile game?
It's not just about Lies of P and Stellar Blade(and The First Descendant also being multiplat and worlwide).

It's laid out very clearly here:




Just by memory, there's also DokeV by Pearl Abyss(although we haven't heard anything from this game in years, which isn't that uncommon for SK publishers)

I mean, even you're avatar is one of those multiplat projects, the 2nd game by Embark Studios after The Finals which are both published by Nexon.

Those developers also talk to other teams(some of them have a lot of employees) as well as other developers from other Studios, they can speak that this wave is continuing, although they can't talk specifics. It's like how all the fighting game devs in Japan talk to one another while going for drinks. They know a lot of things, and they'll speak if you ask and won't divulge the particulars.

Being a WoW and MMO player for the last like 20 years, I can tell you that yeah, this has been noticeable and considering future releases, it doesn't look like it's stopping unless industry trends over there shift again.
I imagine part of this is initiative is because they feel like their local market is capped and growth has to come from outside of SK/Asia.

I think I'm having a stroke. I thought this was about a surge of interest in single player games, not multiplatform strategy.

The First Descendents is a GAAS multiplayer game.
ARC Raider is a GAAS multiplayer game.
DokeV and Crimson Desert haven't released yet. Maybe they do massive numbers but they can't be used as evidence of some kind of new trend.

I just don't see the wave that the author is trying to create. Two single player games that sold a little over one million units each does not strike me as a surge of interest into single player.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

I think I'm having a stroke. I thought this was about a surge of interest in single player games, not multiplatform strategy.

The First Descendents is a GAAS multiplayer game.
ARC Raider is a GAAS multiplayer game.
DokeV and Crimson Desert haven't released yet. Maybe they do massive numbers but they can't be used as evidence of some kind of new trend.

I just don't see the wave that the author is trying to create. Two single player games that sold a little over one million units each does not strike me as a surge of interest into single player.

The trend being observed isn't that they're successful, it's that they're being made at all.

None of those games were actually even thought of being made just a few years ago. All those games that are out(like Stellar Blade/Lies of P) and that are going to come out(Crimson/Bezerzker/etc..) have started development in like 2018 and onwards. The article is just saying something along the line of: We've seen an uptick in SP games being developed in South Korea and the developers who I talked to are saying that this is continuing.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The trend being observed isn't that they're successful, it's that they're being made at all.

None of those games were actually even thought of being made just a few years ago. All those games that are out(like Stellar Blade/Lies of P) and that are going to come out(Crimson/Bezerzker/etc..) have started development in like 2018 and onwards. The article is just saying something along the line of: We've seen an uptick in SP games being developed in South Korea and the developers who I talked to are saying that this is continuing.

Oh yes, I do see that trend. I guess, I think trends truly start when games exceed their projected expectations.

Like, if Stellar Blade sold 10+ million copies at this point, I can see the rest of the industry paying attention and going "They did something there, we need to learn from it."

As it stands right now, I don't think Stellar Blade or Lies of P were successful enough to start a true trend.

Perhaps it's semantics though.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

Oh yes, I do see that trend. I guess, I think trends truly start when games exceed their projected expectations.
Like, if Stellar Blade sold 10+ million copies at this point, I can see the rest of the industry paying attention and going "They did something there, we need to learn from it."
As it stands right now, I don't think Stellar Blade or Lies of P were successful enough to start a true trend.
Perhaps it's semantics though.

Their profitability isn't assured at all considering their lack of experience in the space and lack of presence in the west in terms of mindshare. It's a big gamble, their industry wants growth and it is looking outside of their current MMO/Mobile wheelhouse.

You're thinking too narrowly with that word "trend."
You're thinking of a trend like we see when Fornite comes up and everyone decides that yeah, we want that BR money.
Same with *insert any giant game that sells a gazillion* and suddenly game mechanics get copied to hell and back.

This is a bunch of SK publishers most likely situated in Seoul being like: Sooo... Should we make some SP games?
And a quite a few of them decided that they would do so.
That's the trend.

They might just all fail and go back to just making MMOs and Mobile games, but that'll take a while. Publishers generally don't cancel long gestating games if they see their peers fail to make the big bucks.
Usually they go: It didn't work for them, BUT IT MIGHT WORK FOR US!

I expect that this trend will continue into 2025/2026 and possbly into 2027(?).
At that point if there's a clear lack of success, they'll stop greenlighting such projects and possibly cancel some of the games that are early enough that it's not too costly to just scrap them.

Although it's very likely they will still make smaller games like Dave the Diver. They're less of a risk.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Their profitability isn't assured at all considering their lack of experience in the space and lack of presence in the west in terms of mindshare. It's a big gamble, their industry wants growth and it is looking outside of their current MMO/Mobile wheelhouse.

You're thinking too narrowly with that word "trend."
You're thinking of a trend like we see when Fornite comes up and everyone decides that yeah, we want that BR money.
Same with *insert any giant game that sells a gazillion* and suddenly game mechanics get copied to hell and back.

This is a bunch of SK publishers most likely situated in Seoul being like: Sooo... Should we make some SP games?
And a quite a few of them decided that they would do so.
That's the trend.

They might just all fail and go back to just making MMOs and Mobile games, but that'll take a while. Publishers generally don't cancel long gestating games if they see their peers fail to make the big bucks.
Usually they go: It didn't work for them, BUT IT MIGHT WORK FOR US!

I expect that this trend will continue into 2025/2026 and possbly into 2027(?).
At that point if there's a clear lack of success, they'll stop greenlighting such projects and possibly cancel some of the games that are early enough that it's not too costly to just scrap them.

Although it's very likely they will still make smaller games like Dave the Diver. They're less of a risk.

Fair enough. We just have differing definitions of trend.

 

[Bryank75]

I think Sony took their eye off the ball and just left the single player crowd very thirsty...

There aren't enough great single player games these days.

PlayStation were doing a lot to fill the gap and then the GAAS initiative came along and messed it all up.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I think Sony took their eye off the ball and just left the single player crowd very thirsty...

There aren't enough great single player games these days.

PlayStation were doing a lot to fill the gap and then the GAAS initiative came along and messed it all up.

If you look at the graph on the right, you'll see a slight increase in overall investment into Traditional Single Player games. I don't think the GAAS initiative really impacted their single player projects. Plus, I think there's probably good reason to believe the single player games market has plateaued for years now. It's really hard to make waves in that space if you don't have a big IP attached to your AAA single player game now.

 

[Bryank75]

If you look at the graph on the right, you'll see a slight increase in overall investment into Traditional Single Player games. I don't think the GAAS initiative really impacted their single player projects. Plus, I think there's probably good reason to believe the single player games market has plateaued for years now. It's really hard to make waves in that space if you don't have a big IP attached to your AAA single player game now.

Even just the fact that Naughty Dog was distracted with a GAAS project kinda irks me... They could have been working on uncharted or something instead.

But that's just what I value tbh

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Even just the fact that Naughty Dog was distracted with a GAAS project kinda irks me... They could have been working on uncharted or something instead.

But that's just what I value tbh

I suspect the single player oriented team that released TLoU2 was unaffected by the Factions 2 project. I really think the drought PlayStation fans are experiencing right now is simply a result of games taking 6 years to develop now and most of their big studios released big games in 2019 and 2020.

 

[Gediminas]

I suspect the single player oriented team that released TLoU2 was unaffected by the Factions 2 project. I really think the drought PlayStation fans are experiencing right now is simply a result of games taking 6 years to develop now and most of their big studios released big games in 2019 and 2020.

It is the same team.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

It is the same team.

It's the same studio, not the same team within the studio.

 

[Gediminas]

It's the same studio, not the same team within the studio.

There is no teams as you imagine. Studio has one real team.
We went throught it earlier this year.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

There is no teams as you imagine. Studio has one real team.
We went throught it earlier this year.

There's something called "incubation projects". Studios are always working on smaller game concepts and growing the team size based on certain benchmarks reached. Bungie just cancelled 2 or 3 of these incubation projects. It wouldn't make any sense to put a massive team built to make a narrative focused single player games onto a multiplayer PvP project. Different areas of expertise would be needed.

Plus, if you look at Naughty Dogs cancellation blog post, you'll see they're working on multiple single player games.

 

[Gediminas]

There's something called "incubation projects". Studios are always working on smaller game concepts and growing the team size based on certain benchmarks reached. Bungie just cancelled 2 or 3 of these incubation projects. It wouldn't make any sense to put a massive team built to make a narrative focused single player games onto a multiplayer PvP project. Different areas of expertise would be needed.

Plus, if you look at Naughty Dogs cancellation blog post, you'll see they're working on multiple single player games.

And yet, they did.
I am talking about real teams. They have one. It can be, some few people working on concepts or preproduction but they are still in the same team.