Korea's game industry is rolling out a variety of events for Christmas and the year-end holiday season. From login and attendance rewards to limited-time shops, a range of content is being offered to catch the eye of year-end users.
According to the industry on the 23rd, major Korean game companies are running various events for the year-end and New Year season that begins with Christmas. Nexon is holding Christmas and year-end events across 17 popular titles. MapleStory and Mabinogi will reward users who clear quests with souvenirs. FC Online will grant items based on login time on Christmas Day and on Jan. 1 next year. MapleStory recently took the No. 1 spot in PC cafe share after applying its large winter update. Keeping the momentum, MapleStory said it will decorate major towns for the year-end and New Year with a Christmas theme.
NCSOFT is applying a new difficulty level and increased rewards update to AION2 and has previewed a Christmas special live broadcast. It reworked the reward system for the massive player-versus-environment (PvE) core content, focusing on strengthening the play motivation of existing users. Rather than a short-term event, the company is combining the year-end update cadence with a broadcast. AION2 added various content, including a world exchange, through a regular update on the 10th and began its Christmas season event.
Netmarble is running events across 13 popular games. Seven Knights, Solo Leveling: ARISE, and RF Online Next are rolling out seasonal dungeons, attendance events, and limited-time costumes in full. Wemade is holding events across six titles, including the Mir series, Night Crows, Fantastic Baseball, and Legend of Ymir, for the year-end and New Year season. Centered on attendance, hunting, and dungeon content, the events grant various currencies and legendary-grade items. Smilegate carried out a LORDNINE world integration and a Christmas event at the same time. This is seen as an attempt to minimize user churn by reorganizing servers while combining seasonal rewards.
Com2uS is holding Christmas events across eight games, including Summoners War and its baseball lineup. Each title will run its own Christmas event and grant various items for completing missions such as attendance. Neowiz is applying a Christmas theme to Cats & Soup and introducing a mission-based year-end event that gives free costumes and currency. Gravity is providing Christmas-period buff effects across four titles, including Ragnarok Online and mobile titles, and is granting costume and ticket rewards through a Santa NPC. NHN is preparing a relay event from Christmas through the New Year centered on Hangame Seotda & Matgo, expanding participation among middle-aged and older users.
Game companies are mounting large-scale events for Christmas to draw users during the continuous year-end and New Year period. In particular, since average playtime increases during this period, they can expect the so-called "lock-in effect." According to GameTrics, overall game time during Dec. 23–29 last year showed an uptrend compared with the previous week.
Because Christmas and the year-end and New Year season are a common vacation period worldwide, this is also a chance for game companies with a high share of overseas revenue to target global users. In fact, according to marketing research firm Quantum-Insights, during the holiday period including Christmas last year, daily average game time was 2.5–3.5 hours, up 50–75% compared with regular weekdays (1.3 hours).
An industry official said, "The year-end and New Year season is seen as an important opportunity for the game industry, as user logins at home and abroad become more active," adding, "Because event rewards are bigger than usual and you can see Christmas-themed features, users can fully enjoy the year-end mood even in games."