Development status of ‘Metaverse’ in the domestic game industry that will become a reality within a year

One of the biggest buzzwords in the domestic game industry is 'Metaverse'. Until last year, a number of game companies had been running the business, but so far no clear results have been revealed, so many people are just not feeling it. Rather, in a nutshell, many game companies are trying to implement the metaverse in reality in various ways, such as digital humans and virtual offices. In this article, we have summarized the current status of the metaverse business in the domestic game industry.

A ‘digital human’ that exerts influence on real games beyond advertising and entertainment

In the metaverse era, the field in which game companies are investing the most is digital human. This digital human can be said to be a technology and resource representing virtual reality from the perspective of companies running the metaverse business. It is because the digital human itself can show off both the graphics and AI technology of the game company, and the utilization is very high. In fact, there are Smilegate, Krafton, Netmarble, and Neptune among companies that have announced or directly operate Digital Human.

The company that first used it was Smilegate. ‘Seah’, who first appeared in 2018 to promote Epic Seven, is the main character. In addition, 'Yooah Han', the main character of 'Focus On You', is a virtual influencer that Smilegate is proud of. In particular, Yua Han also worked as an advertising model for a beverage brand or eyewear brand, and released a music video along with the sound source. It can be said that this is a case where most digital human beings are directly used in the entertainment field, unlike the ones where they only show off their technological prowess.

Netmarble's digital human is also expanding its activities in earnest. Netmarble is operating as digital humans 'Lina', 'Jenna', and 'Siwoo', which will debut as a four-member K-pop virtual idol group this year. He is already active in the advertising world, and plans to work in webtoons and web novels. In particular, Netmarble plans to feature these digital humans as characters in its own game 'Overprime' and mobile game 'Grand Cross S'.

As such, the digital human is used as a trick to freely cope with the metaverse environment that can span multiple areas. This means that it has become a factor that can be directly used and influenced by games beyond just advertisements.

Various virtual offices with less than a year left in operation

As the metaverse epidemic came along with Corona 19, the use of it could not be without connection with it. A typical example is a virtual office. Although not in the game industry, Jikbang, an internet real estate platform company, has already set up a new headquarters in the metaverse space.

Com2uS is a company receiving a lot of attention in this center. Com2uS established a subsidiary, 'Com2Bus,' and is creating a platform where you can experience various entertainment and cultural facilities as well as real offices. According to the demonstration video released, it supports not only commuting, but also schedule management, intranet information sharing function, presentation, etc., and music performances and movie screenings are also possible.

The Com2verse Metaverse platform is scheduled to start operating in earnest at the end of this year. In fact, Com2verse is holding an MOU signing ceremony with other companies in the prototype office. Furthermore, the Metaverse office and convention center will be opened in 2023 and the corporate metaverse space will be properly prepared through collaboration with participating companies. will also be prepared. From 2024, general users can also access it and use it as a daily space. To this end, Com2uS is also continuing MOUs with various companies.

Krafton also announced a similar metaverse project 'Project Miglo' in June. The goal of this project is to create a 2x2km virtual space in collaboration with Neighbor Jet, famous for ZEPETO. Here, by applying NFT technology, it is possible to sell real estate and self-made items within the metaverse. Krafton is developing it with the goal of an official service in 2023, and is developing a mobile-oriented service, but is considering accessing it to a PC in the future.

Virtual reality 'Metaverse' that begins to penetrate the real world

In addition to this, each company is doing its best to embody the metaverse in their own way. In the case of Nexon, Project MOD, a game and development toolkit that anyone can create transforming games using MapleStory IP, is pushing as the core content of its metaverse business.

Interestingly, what is developed through Project MOD is not only games, but also various communities, event spaces, and content, etc. In fact, the 2022 NDC after-party, where several artists gathered together, was held in an online space decorated through Project MOD. In addition, various events linked with reality such as contests and demonstrations are being implemented within the project MOD. Nexon plans to add an e-commerce function to this to provide a store that is linked to reality in it, or to develop it to be used in the educational field.

In the case of Wemade, as it is concentrating on blockchain and NFT business, Metaverse is also conducting business related to it. Although there are no tangible results yet, we are continuing to invest in companies that help expand the Wemix ecosystem. NCsoft has also not shown much movement in relation to the metaverse so far, but as CEO Kim Taek-jin said, NCsoft's vision is to create NC's own metaverse, it is making a number of investments in this regard. It is also based on the fact that a number of new executives have been recruited in the past two months to enhance metaverse-related capabilities.

In addition, ‘The Sandbox’, a metaverse gaming platform, is preparing to produce various metaverse contents by signing partnerships with Lotte World, Channel A, and CJ ENM. In this way, the metaverse is interlocking with the real world and gradually becoming a reality. As most companies have announced that they will release full-scale results within about a year, it seems that the day is not far off when we will feel the results of the metaverse.