In the webtoon "Return of the Blossoming Blade," the protagonist Cheongmyeong, a 13th descendant of the Hwasan sect, exhausts his energy and dies in a final battle against the leader of the Demon Religion but is reincarnated as a young child 100 years later. Despite being in the body of a young child, Cheongmyeong, who knows how to master martial arts, strives to resurrect the declining Hwasan sect.
Return of the Blossoming Blade is a mega hit in the webtoon world, armed with charismatic characters and a solid storyline. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency's "2024 Survey on Comic and Webtoon Users," Return of the Blossoming Blade was selected as the most enjoyed work by webtoon readers. The original web novel of Return of the Blossoming Blade recorded a cumulative download count of 700 million on Naver Series, and the second season of the webtoon achieved sales of 400 million won just one day after its release last June. This popular title is expected to also be available as a game from Netmarble.
Domestic game companies are launching new games utilizing popular webtoon intellectual property (IP). Given that the original works have established recognition and fanbases, the strategy is aimed at increasing the potential for success. The struggling gaming industry is looking for a breakthrough through verified IP.
◇ Netmarble and Com2uS Holdings collaborate with popular webtoon IP
According to the gaming industry on the 15th, Netmarble applied a collaboration update with the webtoon "Return of the Blossoming Blade" to its idle role-playing game (RPG) "Seven Knights: Raising" on the 6th. This marks the second collaboration following the initial collaboration in March of last year, spurred by user response. This collaboration features the newly added hero "Maehwa Sword Master," along with key characters from "Return of the Blossoming Blade," including "Cheongmyeong," "Baekcheong," "Yuisul," "Yoonjong," and "Jogul."
Com2uS Holdings announced last month that its idle RPG "Soul Strike" will collaborate with the Naver webtoon "Ultimate Territory Designer." This webtoon is a fantasy genre work where civil engineering student Kim Soo-ho adventures after becoming the character in the novel "The Iron Blooded Knight" that he was reading. Through this collaboration, the protagonist "Lloyd Frontiera," along with "Habiel Asrahon" and "Alicia Termina Magentano," will appear as mythic-grade companions. The main settings in the webtoon will blend with the world of Soul Strike, and the powerful skills "Magi's High-Pitched Cursed Note" and "Balpa" used by the protagonist Lloyd in the original work will be reproduced.
Development of self-developed games utilizing webtoon IP is also active. DILLI announced on the 6th that it launched a mobile game "I Am a Necromancer: Raising" utilizing the IP of the Naver webtoon "I Am a Necromancer." This game is an infinite growth strategy RPG based on the world of the original webtoon. Players can progress through the game as the original protagonist "Yuseongwoo," who becomes a necromancer summoning dead corpses as allies.
◇ Using IP is a double-edged sword… excessive reliance may hinder game development
Recently, game companies are hoping for stable success by utilizing verified webtoon IP. The advantage is that by basing their games on popular original works, they can absorb existing fanbases and reduce development costs by utilizing IP with well-established backgrounds and narratives.
However, even if new titles are released borrowing the narrative of the original work, they may not achieve significant results. There are concerns that greatly altering the established world or applying the original work as is may compromise game quality. Last year, mobile games based on popular Naver webtoon IPs like "Gosu" and "Lore Olympus" experienced failures.
Moreover, excessive reliance on webtoon IP may stifle the development of differentiated content. When producing games based on famous IP, companies must pay royalties to the original creators, and if the profit margins are lower than those of self-developed games, it will diminish the competitiveness of content development. Additionally, since popular IP games are created when the original work is highly popular, they tend not to have a long lifespan.
In fact, Netmarble, which provides several IP-based games, reported an expenditure of 231.6 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year, accounting for 35.6% of its revenue (649 billion won). Hana Financial Investment noted that for Netmarble to enhance its stock price potential, it is essential to extend the lifespan of external IP games and achieve success with original IP.
A gaming industry insider stated, "While bringing a solid storyline when gaming with webtoon IP is possible, it may not be suitable for achieving the kind of impact, game quality, and mechanics that players desire," and emphasized that combining the opinions of game developers and original creators regarding optimized worlds, character art, and device implementation will be crucial in utilizing webtoon IP.