is Coming to Korea - Korea IT Times

Successful Story
ing in the underground world. They desperately
wanted to become full-time, official
evil devils. In order to become that
bad devil, they have to commit 100 sins on
earth; however, they begin to learn love
and many children and teachers on earth
grew fond of them. Applauded Muffy and
Jemjem's story and the two companies are
deciding to carry out a joint production.
Sunjin Entertainment is in the process
of negotiation with America's Eagle
World Media. The two animation giants
met at 'Korea Media & Content Market'
held in LA last December, commissioned
by KOTRA. More specifically, they are
discussing about remaking Sunjin's children
drama into an American version and
exporting its publication rights. Sunjin
Entertainment's children's drama narrates
between good and evil under the theme of
Asian oriental thoughts and Western zodiac
signs. Eagle World Media is also considering
broadcasting their remake around
America, Canada, England, Australia and
other English speaking countries. This
would be beneficial for Korea if the two
companies close the deal because this
would be the first joint production with
foreign companies.
On that note, Nextki is also a culture
content producing company where its employers
ponder on the most innovative
and radical stories day and night. This
company operates its own story-telling research
facility, content research, and development
center. It has developed more
than 100 characters, solutions and storytelling
content. The company has been operating
for two years andit has attained results
by exporting content to five countries
such as China and Hong kong.
Existing online soccer games allow a
user to control 11 in-game players. A
Korean game maker BIGSUN soft, however,
developed "BIGSUN Soccer", in
which 11 users take part in playing a fullsided
soccer match of 11 vs. 11. "BIGSUN
Soccer" is designed to allow users to play
soccer in a spirit of teamwork as if they are
really involved in a soccer game. Buyers
from China and the EU are showing high
interest in the game, so a slew of contracts
are likely to be signed in the near future.
Designstorm came up with the idea for
a soccer-themed animation. Designstorm,
a Korean computer animation studio, is
currently developing a full-HD animal
soccer game, called "Dreamkix", in order
to take advantage of the football fever in
the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup
in South Africa. In the brand new animation
"Dreamkix", Roy the dog, a shortlegged
Dachshund, heads up a hodgepodge
soccer team, which is pitted against
the opposite world-renowned, formidable
team that is made up of a lion, an elephant,
a seal, an eagle, a buffalo, and so
on. Designstorm is now discussing contract
terms with buyers from the EU and
South America.
FIX Korea, a Korean software development
company, in partnership with
Minh Le, one of the original creators of
Dream Kix
the world-famous Counter Strike (a tactical
first-person shooter video game) to develop
a new first-person shooting game,
called "Tactical Intervention (TI)". The
soon-to-be developed shooting game, slated
to be commercialized in June of this
year, is going through the alpha testing
phase, but FIX Korea has already inked a
contract with Mayn Interacive, who publishes
games in the U.S. and EU.
RoC Works, a Japanese game publisher,
is developing a fantasy Massive Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG),
called "Maestia", with the help of veteran
game developers, who have at least five to
six years of experience in game development.
RoC Works seems on track to sign
Tactical intervention(TI)
contracts with German buyers within the
first quarter of this year.
On the other hand, KOTRA mentioned
that exporting cultural content takes much
more time and energy than any other exporting
item. Generally, a one-year negotiation
period is required to complete safety
tests, consumer surveys, and localization
work. In addition, KOTRA stated,
"Cultural content developers, most of
whom are SMEs, turned out to have been
greatly helped by supportive institutions
such as KOTRA." Hong Seong-wook,
CEO of Grafizix that signed a contract in
June of last year, gave thanks to KOTRA
by saying, "A variety of projects and buyer
surveys initiated by KOTRA have been
very helpful to us." KOTRA supports cultural
content developers, the include annual
participation in the French exhibition
"MIPCOM Junior", and "Korea Media &
Content Market (KMCM)", which is held
in South Korea and L.A.
Cho Hwan-ik, President of KOTRA
said, "Even though our efforts for supporting
the exports of S. Korea's cultural content
kicked into high gear just last year,
they are already paying off. Our content
developers' prowess in developing creative
stories has lit up the prospects for exporting
cultural content."
Yeon Choul-woong / bruceyeon@koreaittimes.com
Bang Jung-hyun / jbang@koreaittimes.com
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