As Japanese animation gains popularity mainly among people in their 20s and 30s, Korea's game industry is moving quickly to develop games using related intellectual property (IP). At the same time, it is also ramping up an "IP expansion strategy" that draws Japanese manga and anime fans into games while adapting hit games into animation.
According to the game industry on the 21st, Smilegate is preparing a new game, "Dead Account: Two Blue Flames," based on the popular Japanese manga "Dead Account." Smilegate will also handle game publishing (distribution).
Dead Account is a manga that began serialization in 2023. Set in a world where the social media (SNS) account of a deceased person turns into a ghost, it follows the protagonist's attempts to eliminate them. With adrenaline-pumping battle action as its hallmark, it is seen as especially well-suited for a game adaptation. The manga is also slated to air as an anime starting in January next year, and the company said that once the game is released, it expects synergy such as drawing in fans of the original.
Com2uS is developing a new turn-based role-playing game (RPG), "Tokidamanki Crimson Inferno," based on the IP of the currently airing Japanese anime "Tokidamanki." "Tokidamanki," which began airing on TV in July, is based on a popular manga of the same name that has surpassed a total circulation of 4 million copies. Since 2023, Com2uS has been working with Japanese game company G Holdings to preserve the original character settings and worldbuilding, and to deliver high-adrenaline combat with 3D graphics and direction.
HN plans to release next year a puzzle game, "Oshi no Ko Puzzle Star," based on the IP of the hit Japanese anime "Oshi no Ko." It will be the first game made with the "Oshi no Ko" IP and is set to be unveiled in line with the broadcast schedule of the TV anime's third season. Netmarble will also release in January next year the open-world action role-playing game (RPG) "The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin," based on the IP of the manga "The Seven Deadly Sins," which has recorded more than 55 million copies sold worldwide.
KRAFTON said it would strengthen collaboration between Japanese animation and domestic games after acquiring Japanese advertising and animation corporations ADK Group for 710 billion won in June. KRAFTON plans to expand its IP business by adapting Japanese anime that are easier to gamify into games or producing KRAFTON's game IP into animation.
NCSOFT signed a content distribution partnership with Laftel, an animation-focused over-the-top (OTT) streaming service. Through this partnership, Laftel will provide more than 3,800 animation titles to the NCSOFT Family Zone PC cafes. Lim Won-gi, NCSOFT's chief brand and marketing officer (CBMO), said, "Games and animation are cultural content with overlapping core users, so we expect strong synergy."
As Japanese manga and animation have taken root as pop culture among people from their teens to their 30s, game companies are seen accelerating the gamification of related content that already boasts solid fan bases. In fact, the number of viewers watching animation is increasing worldwide, centered on OTT platforms like Netflix. At "Anime Expo" held in Los Angeles in July, Netflix said, "300 million people, or half of all subscribers, watch animation, and animation viewership has more than tripled over the past five years." In Korea, the Japanese animated film "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc," released in theaters, surpassed 5 million cumulative moviegoers, becoming the biggest box-office hit among films released in Korea this year. The number of monthly active users (MAU) of Laftel, an OTT service specializing in animation, has also steadily increased over the past three years, reaching the 1 million range.
For game companies, animation amounts to "verified IP." With a low success rate for new titles, developing games from Japanese manga and anime IP that already have name recognition can increase the odds of a hit while reducing development risk. A person in the game industry said, "In the game industry, whether you hold popular IP heavily influences box office performance and earnings," adding, "Japanese animation has well-developed characters, plots, and worlds, making it particularly suitable for gamification."