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SmileGate Inc. (www.smilegate.com) is one of Korea’s major online game
developers that has successfully launched the internationally popular online FPS, CrossFire.
Mr. Herald Kwon, founder and CEO of the game developer was awarded the 51st Trader of
the Month for his contribution to growing CrossFire into the global top FPS game that is being
played by 250 million users worldwide.
Currently, the military FPS game is being serviced in 74 countries, including, China, Japan,
Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, USA, Canada and UK, to name just a few.
CrossFire has become a highly popular game, especially among Chinese users, as SmileGate’s
localization strategies in regards to the Chinese users have paid off.
With 30% of market share in the Chinese PC rooms, the game has is one of the most played
games in the country at the moment. It also hit 4.2million concurrent users there, a record high in
the history of the Chinese game industry.
The online FPS game’s popularity is not limited to China, setting new records around the
world. It reached 100,000 concurrent users in Vietnam, and recorded 30,000 concurrent users in
North America, respectively.
Thanks to the worldwide popularity of CrossFire, the game developer recorded significant
growth in both sales revenues and profits in 2011. The Korean game developer saw its sales
skyrocket to 169.5 billion won with a 200% growth in profits from a year earlier.
When Mr. Gwon was just beginning to penetrate the Chinese market, many people in the game
industry had doubts about his decision in the aftermath of a streak of failures of other FPS games there.
Despite many disadvantages, his game company exerted all-out efforts in reaching out to
Chinese users, and finally captured the Chinese game users by lowering the barrier to entry into
CrossFire. At the same time, the game developer focused on customizing the game contents so
that they can provide a good match to the Chinese culture and preferences.
As a result of these endeavors, CrossFire enjoys nationwide popularity, achieving remarkable
sales growth every year in China.
The game developer has grown into a leading player beyond the Korean game industry just
three years after releasing CrossFire.
Currently, SmileGate is moving to extend its business arena into the global publishing
business, especially in the USA and China by setting up the US subsidiaries or taking over some
relevant Chinese companies. The game company is also strengthening its key developing
capability so that it will be able to introduce a multitude of genres, fromFPS to MMORPG, sports
and actions games. At the moment, a number of projects that span the various genres are in the
middle of development.
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