Global Game and GameFi Regional Market Report Series — Korea (Part 2): Korea GameFi Ecological Guide

Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance( ABGA ) — — A non-profit, blockchain alliance, co-sponsored by leading institutions in the gaming industry. We are optimistic about blockchain games, NFTs and Metaverse and we are taking the initiative to support ABGA related activities and investments.

Founded in 2015, Chain Capital is a new digital fund focusing on the investment of blockchain head project and the management of professional digital asset.

[Disclosure]: The information contained in this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice, and Chain Capital assumes no responsibility for the information or the results caused by the use of the information.

In the previous report, we mentioned the local traditional game market in South Korea and the progress of game manufacturing giants into the blockchain. This report will continue to explore the blockchain projects related to Gamefi in South Korea, and sort out the current situation in the form of illustrations and texts. Projects that exist in the Korean blockchain game market. This report will use the public chain ecology as a collection, and include game projects in the ecology in layers.

1、 The Overall Ecological Map Related to Korean GameFi Market

1. Characteristics and Trends of Korean GameFi

(1) The choice of public chains is relatively concentrated in Korean Gamefi, and Klaytn is very popular.

Most of the Korean local Gamefi projects are deployed on the Korean local public chains Klaytn and Terra. Klaytn is an ecological public chain based on the Metaverse and GameFi. In addition, the Korean chain game project will develop towards the BNB chain in the future. Netmarble, a traditional Korean game giant, will cooperate with BNB Chain in 2022 and launch the action shooting game “Golden Bros” on the BNB chain; in February 2022, Binance Reached an NFT and Metaverse-related cooperation with South Korean entertainment company YG Entertainment.

(2) South Korean Gamefi are showing an ecological trend, and the future competition pattern will likely be the “supernatural powers” among the game ecosystems.

According to the currently included project illustrations, about 80% of the Korean Gamefi belong to the game ecology/aggregator. Three game ecosystems/sidechains WEMIX, MARBLEX, NEOPIN created by WeMade, Netmarble, and Neowiz local traditional game manufacturing giants. KlayDice by BSS Studio; MetaPixel by Npixel; and Ludena Protocol by an independent team.

(3) The phenomenon of chain reform of Korean Gamefi is relatively common, and it faces a trade-off between ensuring player base and innovation

According to the currently included project illustrations, more than 70% of the Korean Gamefi have transformed the existing traditional games into blockchain version games. This feature is undoubtedly conservative to ensure game players and the community, but at the same time, it will face gameplay. and innovative puzzles for playability.

(4) MMORPGs account for half of the Korean chain game projects, accounting for about 60% of the statistical projects, and card games for development account for about 25%

Parts 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this report will briefly introduce the Korean GameFi projects distributed in various public chain ecosystems.

2、Korean GameFi Related Projects on Klaytn

· Klaytn market value and circulation

Token: $KLAY

KLAY price (USDT): 0.4

Total KLAY: 10,782,297,981

Total market capitalization of KLAY: 4,320,917,760

KLAY Circulation: 2,840,000,000

Market capitalization: 1,137,486,031

Circulation ratio: 24.34%

1.Background

The public chain developed by Ground X, a blockchain subsidiary of South Korean Internet giant Kakao, completed a $90 million seed round in March 2019, and its current total token market value is about $4.32 billion.

Kakao is one of the largest publicly traded tech companies in South Korea, with a market capitalization of more than $40 billion. In South Korea, more than 93% of the population uses KakaoTalk, an instant messaging application developed by Kakao, and another product, Kakao Pay, is the largest electronic wallet in South Korea. Backed by Kakao, Klaytn has strong resources and innate development advantages. KakaoTalk integrates with KakaoTalk through its crypto wallet Klip, connecting to 45 million KakaoTalk users. As an important tool for Kakao’s transformation to web3, Klaytn also undertakes Kakao’s entertainment, games, technology and other resources.

Klaytn was initially positioned as an enterprise-grade, service-centric platform that combines the characteristics of public chains (decentralized data and distributed governance) and private chains (low latency and high scalability) through a “hybrid” design . Klaytn has also signed a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project with the Bank of Korea.

In September 2021, Klaytn opened the Klaytn 2.0 era, with a new positioning “Metaverse Blockchain”, and the service objects are also open to everyone from enterprises. Its main ecological projects are also gradually focusing on AAA games, P2E games, NFTs, and DeFi services that support the Metaverse business.

The slogan of Klaytn is: to become a “one-stop” blockchain for metaverse builders. “One-stop” refers to open source toolkits, high-performance mainnet, community co-construction, and financial support. As mentioned in the Klaytn 2.0 Lightpaper released a few months ago, Klaytn 2.0 will provide an open source suite for Metaverse developers, enhancing scalability, performance and interoperability, supporting Ethereum equivalence to simplify EVM-based Development of DApps. The “Metaverse” development kit includes SDK and smart contract libraries, wallets and chain browsers, distributed storage solutions, Oracle support, cross-chain bridges, DAOs, NFT markets, DEX and DeFi, traditional financial interfaces, and more.

2. Game Ecosystem Ereated by Traditional Game Giants on Klaytn

（1）WEMIX

· Market value and circulation of WEMIX:

Token: $WEMIX

WEMIX Price (UDST): 4.18

Total WEMIX: 1,015,055,200

Total market capitalization of WEMIX (USD): 4,320,917,760

WEMIX circulation: 123,233,682.38

Market capitalization (USD): 513,694,382

Circulation ratio: 12.14%

a. Background

WEMIX, a global blockchain platform developed by South Korean gaming giant WeMade Corporation, can be used for all types of games to be converted into blockchain games on the platform. WEMIX is the Klaytn side chain (service chain), Wemade’s “Legend 4” is deployed on this side chain, and the token is WEMIX. WEMIX plans to serve 100 games by the end of 2022.

Founded in 2000, South Korean game giant Wemade is one of the first game companies to complete the transformation from traditional games to blockchain. Last year’s launch of “Legend 4” (MIR4) caused Wemade’s share price to double several times. Legend 4, a Klaytn-based P2E game from Wemade, has attracted over 1.3 million concurrent players in less than three months since its official release in 170 countries.

b. Games Ecosystem

c. Game Introduction

（2） Marblex

· Marblex market value and circulation:

Token: $MBX

MBX price (USD): 14.3

Total MBX: 1,000,000,000

MBX total market capitalization (USD): 14,190,473,177

MBX circulation: 5,000,000

Market capitalization (USD): 70,952,366

Circulation ratio: 0.5%

a. Background

Netmarble, the largest mobile game developer in South Korea, has launched the MBX (MARBLEX) blockchain ecosystem based on the Klaytn mainnet. Recently, Netmarble F&C, a subsidiary of Netmarble, also signed a cooperation agreement with the game development engine Unity, which will promote the launch of the “Metaverse World” platform.

b. Games

c. Introduction

(3)Neopin

· NPT market value and circulation:

Token: $NPT

NPT price (USD): 2.45

Total NPT: 1,000,000,000

Total NPT market capitalization (USD): 2,453,846,115

NPT circulation: 4,800,000

Market capitalization (USD): 11,782,510

Circulation ratio: 0.48%

a. Background

Launched by veteran Korean game developer Neowiz, the developer of “Cross Fire”, Neopin aims to become an “open blockchain platform” that connects a series of blockchain-related services such as encrypted wallets, games, P2E, S2E, and NFTs. In February this year, the project signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Klaytn Foundation, and plans to launch the Klaytn network-based P2E game “Crypto Golf Imfact” in April, which is a game that applies blockchain technology to sports. In addition, Neowiz will also launch other P2E games based on the Klaytn network such as “BRAVE NINE” and “AVA” this year.

b. Games

c. Introduction

3. Independent Projects on Klaytn

（1） KlayDice

a. Introduction

The Gamefi aggregation platform developed by the Korean game company BSS is committed to transforming existing traditional games into Gamefi. It plans to launch 10 P2E versions of traditional game chains in 2022, and more game projects will be launched later. The Genesis NFT in the platform will be used as a general credential to participate in all games and the social scenarios of the metaverse that will be launched in the future. It will cooperate with other game companies in the future, and will develop its own metaverse in the future.

b. Built-in Games

i. DICAST: Rules of Chaos: Convert the traditional PC game Dicast: Rule of Chaos to the chain game version. A chess turn-based strategy game. The total download volume exceeds 1 million, and Google Play has more than 500,000 downloads, with a rating of 4.3/5 and 800,000 players worldwide. A single game will make about $1.25 million in profit in 2021 and will be launched in Q3 in 2022.

ii. TankRoyal: A tank battle game in the Q version style, and on this basis, more diversified game experiences and modes are added, multiplayer online action games. The test version has been launched on Steam, and the chain-modified version is planned to be launched in Q3, 2022.

iii. HeroDash: Parkour game, planned to be launched in late 2022.

iv. Jewel Island: A casual game of matchmaking, which is planned to be launched at the end of 2022.

c. Background of Partners

Led by Krust and incubated, other participating institutions include OKX Ventures, GBV Capital, Chain Capital, Redline DAO, Skyvision Capital, F3V, HG Ventures, Alphanonce, KlayCity.

d. Community

Twitter: 74,500 (https://twitter.com/klaydice)

Telegram(Subscriber): 17,599 (https://t.me/KlayDice_official)

Discord: 38,676 (https://discord.com/invite/klaydice)

(2)KlayCity

a. Introduction

Klaycity is the first official metaverse land project on the Klaytn chain. It belongs to a P2E land management game. At present, the construction of the world map and the construction of the NFT of the plot have been completed. The complete game system will be launched on March 18, 2022. online.

b. Gameplay

Compared with other metaverse land management games, Klaycity is a trading system based on real-world maps. Each player can become a landowner by purchasing real-world plots and experience the feeling of a “real-world city”. Land NFT holders can participate in various activities in the game, including “purification”, “exploration” and “upgrade”.

c. Investment institutions

The seed round was led by Krust and Animoca Brand with $3.75 million, followed by Naver Z, FriendsGames, A&T Capital, OKX Blockdream Ventures, GBV Capital and others.

d. Community

Twitter: 41,100 (https://twitter.com/KlayCity)

Telegram: 12,211 (https://t.me/klaycity)

Discord: 22870 (https://discord.com/invite/ksv5mxsRcx)

3、Korean GameFi Related Projects on Terra

1. Games

2. Introduction

3. Gamefi Ecosystem

a. Introduction

The decentralized entertainment ecosystem developed by Npixel, a Korean animation and game company, mainly features a chain game aggregator, and will launch a variety of 3A-quality P2E games in the ecosystem.

b. Upcoming Games

4、Korean Gamefi related projects on BNB Chain

(1) Golden Bros :

A third-person cartoon-style shooting game under the banner of Netmarble, a Korean traditional game maker. The game mode is a 3v3 shooting MOBA game. Netmarble partnered with Binance and launched the Golden Bros game NFT on Binance NFT. The game went live on April 28, 2022, with over 10,000 downloads on Google Play.

Website

https://goldenbros.netmarble.com/

Twitter:36,500 followers

https://twitter.com/GoldenBrosNM/

Discord:83,916 members

https://discord.com/invite/goldenbros/

(2) Seoul Stars :

The “Sing-To-Earn” project with virtual K-pop idol Yuna as the NFT as the protagonist of the metaverse, will launch a music rhythm-themed casual action-type Play-To-Earn game in the future. At present, it has received support and cooperation from more than 20 Korean artists.

Website

https://seoulstars.io/zh-hans

Twitter:67,100 followers

https://twitter.com/SeoulStarsNFT

Telegram:9,946 members

https://t.me/seoulstars

Discord:25,530 members

https://discord.com/invite/seoulstars

Seoul Stars Media

5、Korean Gamefi related projects on Ethereum

The Labyrinth of Ragnarok :

The chain game version of Ragnarok: The Labyrinth of Prontera launched by the Korean traditional game manufacturing giant Gravity. The game was officially launched on April 27, 2022, and now has more than 1 million downloads on Google Play.

Website

https://labyrinthnft.gnjoy.id/en

Twitter: 7,172 followers

https://twitter.com/rolabyrinthnft

The Labyrinth of Ragnarok Media

6、Korean Game Social Ecology and Game Union: Ludena Protocol

1. Introduction

Ludena Protocol is a game ecosystem in Korea that integrates games, NFT market, Staking and game social functions. The total market value of the issued token LDN is about 240 million US dollars. The Ludena Guild launched a gaming guild for the Ludena Protocol. Kanimal Clash, a game product produced by Ludena Protocol, is a turn-based card battle game that has not yet been launched.

2. Media

Website：https://www.ludenaprotocol.io/eng/

Twitter: 40,500 (https://twitter.com/ludenaprotocol)

Telegram: 46,901 (https://t.me/ludenaprotocol)

Discord: 18,104 (https://discord.com/invite/sS2xWynjnE)

©Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance (ABGA) All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.