Smilegate, the 20th anniversary of its founding, attempts to leap as a global entertainer beyond the game

While Smilegate Group celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, he challenged to become a global entertainment company beyond the game.

Smilegate, which started as a small game company in June 2002, is said to have been reborn as a rich game of intellectual property (IP) with a number of successes such as PC games 'Crossfire' and 'Lost Arc' and 'Epic Seven'. The company has increased its sales to KRW 1 trillion due to the success of the game.

Recently, Smilegate has been newly known as a global game and entertainment company by expanding its new business to large-scale meta bus projects, artificial intelligence (AI), and Virtual artist Han Yu. This is why Smilegate is attracting attention whether it will write another success myth in outside the game.

Various box office works... Smilegate future bright

It is a crossfire, which is considered as a global NO1 shooting game of Smilegate. In particular, the game has been loved by global users for 16 years since its debut in 2007, and is the first public to put Smilegate in its present position.

The results of the crossfire were more than expected. The main achievements include services from 80 countries around the world, 1 billion global users, 8 million concurrent users, and $ 11.8 billion in cumulative sales (as of 2020).

Epic Seven was released in 2018 and has been loved for five years as a number of mobile RPGs. Immediately after its launch, it ranked second in sales in the domestic mobile game market, and recorded the top 10 sales rankings in Western and Asian countries. The game is getting a good response not only in Korea but also in global markets such as North America, Europe, Japan and Taiwan.

Smilegate has won the Tower of $ 50 million exports awarded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 2019 Trade Day with Crossfire and Epic Seven. I enjoyed the award.

Here is not the end. This is because there is a topic 'Lost Arc'. This game is a masterpiece PC MMORPG game with more than 100 billion won in development costs for seven years. Since his debut in 2018, he has been a big topic and has won six crowns in the 2019 Korean Game Awards. Last year, the popularity of Lost Arc is increasingly powered over time, with the second largest domestic PC room share and exceeding 260,000 in Korea in January.

Lost Arc also entered overseas through the global game platform Steam in February, showing surprises. Lost Arc's highest number of concurrent users is an unprecedented record in RPG game history. It is also the second-largest record ever when the genre is expanded to the entire game on Steam. Thanks to this popularity, the total number of users of Lost Arc has surpassed 20 million in March.

Focusing on business power to expand the existing IP... Drama to concert

Smilegate has been showing its unique steps in IP diversification, one of the biggest topics in the domestic game industry in recent years. Core IPs are transformed into dramas, theme parks, esports, and concerts.

First of all, the drama 'Cheonwolhwa Line', based on Crossfire, is considered as a box office among video IPs using game IP, the company explained. The drama has surpassed 2 billion views since it was released in China in 2020. Since last year, watching has been available in 'Watcha', a domestic OTT platform.

In September last year, a crossfire-based offline theme park 'Hwabojeon' was opened in Guangzhou, China. The total ship was composed of a total of 3,000 pyeong, including survival combat experience, VR, kids zone, F & B, and MD stores.

Smilegate's various IPs are also successful with esports. The Crossfire Global e-Sports Festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last year, has become one of the most successful e-sports competitions among the FPSs by connecting game fans around the world, including China, Europe, North America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South America. It was known.

Epic Seven held the Global e-Sports Festival for users around the world last year, 'Epic Festival 2021' and held the World Anna Championship (E7WC) as the main event. 16 named users from Korea, Asia, Europe, and global servers participated in the competition and participated in the competition.

Lost Arc was re-examined on the 3rd of the OST concert 'Dear. Friends', which was able to listen to various OSTs of Strak as a full orchestra. The concert gave not only 1,200 visitors who visited the concert hall, but also 210,000 Loa fans who watched online. The cumulative number of concert videos exceeded 1.7 million times in three days.

AI, Virtual Artist, Social Video Platform… Smilegate Challenge lasts

Smilegate is expanding its position as an entertainment and IP master by challenging various high-tech industries such as AI, Virtual Artist, and Social Video Platform.

Smilegate AI Center is moving towards the goal of 'Human-Like AI in Enterment'. In the field of entertainment, where human emotions and characteristics are melted, we are producing 'attractive AI' where humans are interacting like real humans by studying what humans feel, surprise, cry, and laugh.

Smilegate's Virtual Artist Hanyu Knowing Her recent song 'I Like That' attracted attention as a full version music video. The music video has been receiving hot reactions, exceeding 6 million YouTube views in five days since its release. Hanyu knows that she is also active as an advertising model for her popular tea beverages brand 'Corn Byeold' and the eyewear brand 'Paris Sensy Bless'.

Smilegate plans to launch 'P.POOL', the next generation social video platform in the second half. Pipool is a multilateral video communication service that adds a Social element similar to the zoom.

These diverse attempts come out of the meta bus business, the company explained.

Smilegate is promoting a large-scale metabus project that mobilizes the company's capabilities to take a leap forward as an entertainment company leading the global market. Smilegate Table Metabus will be introduced as a game-based social creative platform that can provide users with differentiated fun and happiness that have not been experienced before in the virtual space.

An official of Smilegate said, The challenges of Smilegate's new fields such as Meta Bus, AI, Virtual Human, and Social Video Platform will create a pleasant future that no one could imagine with the attractive IPs of Smilegate. I ask for your interest and love.