South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has recently joined the ranks of Sony and Microsoft, regarding Nintendo with envious eyes and drawing his plans against the Wii. Jealous of Nintendo's success in his home country, Lee lamented South Korea's lack of console development.
"A lot of our elementary school children have Nintendo game machines," he whines. "Why can't our companies develop products like that?"
However, the President's comments are met with little more than disdain from his country's companies, as the Korean games industry found fault with the President's words.
"It would be great if the software industry here was healthy enough to produce a lot of games, which would drive up the sales of handheld consoles and introduce more products onto the market," explains GamePark exec Park Sang-hoon. "However, as a latecomer, we have the difficulty of proving our products first and securing third parties later."
One anonymous mobile game developer is more aggressive, stating: "Talking about Nintendo is out of touch, when you consider that the local software market is virtually on life-support. Piracy and lack of quality personnel has killed the vibrancy of the Korean software market, and I wonder whether the government has ever been serious about fostering the country's software industry. It's telling that most of the computers at government agencies rely on pirated software."
And finally, another unnamed industry figure places the blame squarely on Lee's government: "You don't have the right to be daydreaming about Nintendo, when Korean online game firms, which are actually doing well overseas, feel they could do better if the government wasn't biting at their ankles."
So, you can expect South Korea's new Nentindo Wuu to outclass and outperform all major consoles worldwide this Spring!
Contest:
10:00 AM on 02.06.2009
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Its true. Its not that korean developers aren't talented, but that their being close to China, sees them flooded with the scourge of pirate software. If South Korea could deal with that, korean developers would have more of a chance, and their development etc should improve.
There's a lot of potential there to be used, but they won't be able to do it without western help.
Not taking it out of context like so many gaming journalists and fans like to do with political statements.
More than jealousy, I find this as new business opporunities for game developers if this really goes somewhere.
I am rather afraid to contradict you, seeing as you have been a hard core game " 4 ever ", but Miyamoto is not the god of gaming. He is an incredibly talented man, but no god.
Have to disagree. Consider his accomplishments. He created some of the most enduring characters of all time. If he isn't a god of gaming, then I can't really in good conscience call anyone a god of gaming.
When korea wanted to boost their film industry, they passet a law restricting theaters from playing more than 40% foreign films (could be the other way around at %60...can't remember) This forced studios to step up and make more movies...and now Korea's film industry is growing by an amazing rate over the last several years. I can see them doing something like this for games.
Also, more Koreans play PC, and most play at PC rooms and don't own their own gaming machines.
@ Cowboy TTop -
Korea has more strict laws agains piracy, especially for Korean products. I know from friends and personal experience that it's way easier to pirate or purchase pirated games in USA than in Korea. They seem to have IT pretty covered...except for the occasional dude with DVDs in a suitcase...but America has that, too.
This president is an extremely hated president over here...there were almost a million people protesting in Seoul against his terrible trade policy with the US regarding beef imports last year...having a Korean made video game in schools is the least of his problems.
I'm an American currently living and working in Korea.