New Media for Social Change:

Globalisation and the Online Gaming

Industries of South Korea and Singapore∗

CHUNG PEICHI

This article explores the role of state in administering an effective cultural policy to cultivate
the gaming industry in Asia and in shaping popular media in a global context. Theories of
globalisation have focused on the dominance of transnational companies in fostering today’s
global politics as well as new world information order. This article explains the historical
context of cultural policy in South Korea and Singapore. Online game industries in the
two countries show different levels of state involvement. While state and local companies
in South Korea serves as significant actors in shaping the dynamics of the local industry,
in Singapore state and multinational companies play pivotal roles in the development. By
focusing on these two divergent locations, this article aims to demonstrate the significance
of localisation in determining online gaming industries globally.

∗The article is based upon in-depth interviews with twenty-one government officials and
game companies in South Korea, and sixteen interviews with government officials and game
company managers in Singapore. The author conducted fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea, in
June 2006. The interviews in South Korea included marketing managers from major online
companies such as NCSoft, NHN, Webzen, Neowiz, JCE, Wemade, Actosoft and Nexon.
The fieldwork in Singapore included interviews with government officials from the MDA
and EDB. The author also interviewed game company managers from Mikoishi, Boomzap,
Nexgen, Rapture Gaming, Electronic Arts, RealU and Emerging Entertainment. Most of
the interview participants used pseudonyms for anonymity. The author started fieldwork in
Singapore in November 2006 and completed it in December 2007.

Chung Peichi, Communications and New Media Programme, National University of

Singapore, [email protected]
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SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore
DOI: 10.1177/097172180801300207

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 304 „ Chung Peichi

Introduction

THE ROLE OF state in national development has been an important issue in

the studies of political economy of communication (McChesney 1998;
Mosco 1996). The media imperialism thesis, which focuses on the role of
global media conglomerates in shaping new world orders, has dominated
debates on state involvement. Transnational media companies have been
seen as primary agents in creating an imbalanced media structure in
globalisation (Tomlinson 1999). Be it in cinema, music, advertising, ICT
and interactive entertainment, transnational media companies penetrate
all dimensions of media industries (Kline et al. 2003; Miller et al. 2005;
Negus 2004). The aggressive geographic expansion of transnational
corporations has challenged many notions around national cultures
and what it means to be local in an age of globalisation (Simai 2003).
In a period of globalisation, the role of the government plays a pivotal
role in determining whether the media industries should move towards
integration, disintegration or fragmentation.
Most of the literature in media production discusses the dynamics of
the new media industry from the perspective of the corporation (Caves
2000; Hawkins 2005; Hesmondhalgh 2002; Jackel 2003). Multinational
companies and small or medium-sized firms (SMEs) play key roles to
maintaining content production in establishing cultural industries (Scott
2000). For instance, an established cultural industry needs to form ag-
glomerations among media companies to create successful industry
dynamics. The success of a cultural production site has been discussed
at length in the context of California in the US, the UK, Canada, France
and Australia. However, there is a lack of discussion on the various types
of cultural industries in Asia.
In order to address this disparity, this article will focus upon two di-
ergent examples in the region: South Korea and Singapore. While South
Korea shows a model of a creative industry that exports its local product
globally, Singapore presents another model of new media industry that is
based upon collaboration between the local government and multinational
game companies. Singapore and South Korea are two countries in Asia that
have achieved high broadband penetration development. By discussing
these two examples, the article aims to examine the role of state in creating
local effects to respond to globalisation in todays’ new media environment.
In turn, the article will sketch out the meaning of local autonomy and

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evaluate the role of information communication technology in the unequal

development process of globalisation in Asian countries.
The two chosen case studies, South Korea and Singapore, exemplify
two leading Asian tigers that are basking in the success in digital devel-
opment. Both countries are known globally for their booming digital
industries, denoted by their high ratings in digital creation and literacy
(OECD 2006). In 2007 South Korea was world number nine, while
Singapore was positioned at number eighteen in the list of countries with
highest broadband penetration (Internet World Stats 2008). Delving be-
yond these images of techno-nationalism, this article will examine the
cultural policies that inform current ICT development in the South Korean
and Singaporean online gaming industries.
The article is mainly divided into four sections. First, it discusses
the theory of globalisation and the role of cultural policy in the global
information economy. Second, it takes on the current development of
online gaming industries in South Korea and Singapore. This article
uses the online gaming industry to examine the different models that the
government in both countries use to design cultural policies and their new
media industries. Third, it will examine the effect of cultural policies in
South Korea and in Singapore. Drawing predominantly from fieldwork
conducted in Seoul in 2006 and in Singapore in 2007, the final section will
evaluate industry dynamics and company performances, and then conclude
with a discussion on the significance of globalisation and its relation to
nation-state in the two emerging Asian gaming industries.

Globalisation and Cultural Policy

One of the challenges that state faces in today’s media globalisation is

that citizens predominantly engage their media consumption activities in
deregulatory, privatised and liberalised environments. In an age of the
‘prosumer’, the harnessing and regulation of content is becoming more
fragmented. The social and economic forces that determined where capital
flows and how labour markets develop are increasingly being characterised
by denationalization (Audretsch and Bonser 2002). As Robinson (2004 191)
argues, ‘The essence of globalization is global capitalism, which has super-
seded the nation-state stage of capitalism.’ According to Simai (2003),
the state now faces challenges from two sides: from a top view, it has a

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weakening role in national development because its decision making is

now bound by compulsory regulation determined by multilateral entities;
and from a grassroots position it also receives restrictions from various
social actors as they are grouped into broad categories encompassing
non-governmental organisations that closely participate in government
activities (ibid: 66).
Cultural policy is a means of governance that shapes a particular type
of cultural industry for citizens. The all-pervasive role of the cultural
industries has far-reaching effects on artistic, cultural and government
practices; cultural policy often works to reflect social interactions in a
society (Bennett 2000). According to Miller (2000), cultural and artistic
activities fostered by the state often maintain various identities that con-
stitute its citizenship. There can be several purposes to form cultural
citizenship through cultural regulation. For instance, cultural policy
that promotes establishment of a cultural economy based upon advertis-
ing leads to a form of citizenship based upon purchase of commodities
(Lewis and Miller 2003). Advertising can also encourage certain forms
of nationalism through promotion of collective consumption on some
commercial products in society (Cunningham 2003).
In South Korea cultural policy achieves cultural regionalisation through
the popularity of the ‘Korean Wave’. This phenomenon has seen Korean
products such as TV dramas and online games taking on forms of cultural
capital in the region. The state plays a significant role in developing and
nurturing ICT and traditional broadcasting media sectors (Jin 2006a; Shim
2006). Through fostering and supporting domestic media industries such
as television, film and online gaming, the South Korean government has
secured a role for Korean products in the construction of regionalisation in
Asia.1 The Korean government maintains two affiliate offices in South-East
Asia: the Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and
the Korea ICT International Cooperation Agency (KIICA).2 These of-
fices promote Korean media products to local distributors. They assist
Korean game companies to enter the local market by regularly holding
trade shows in Singapore. The function of such organisations has been
important in creating trans-Asian ties as demonstrated by KOTRA’s role
in establishing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between South Korea and
Singapore in 2006.

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The Korean Wave is a result of the local media industry responding

to media liberalisation. This is exemplified in case of the success of
Korean online gaming products in Asia. These cultural trends, and the
corresponding market convergence, reflect a response in the region to the
role of globalisation from the 1990s onwards (Shim 2006). For the Korean
policy makers, integrating film, television and online game businesses into
global market was the only solution for Korean culture industries to survive
in the country’s trend of globalisation (Jin 2006b). Even as early as 1994,
South Korea was establishing cultural policy that addressed globalisation,
symbolised as the beginning of the South Korean globalisation (segyewa)
policy by President Kim Y.S. While transnational companies started to
invest in the Korean film industry in mid-1990s, it became imperative
that the Korean government collaborated with domestic film companies
to promote the local film industry.
Korea’s cultural policy on local creative industry was strongly informed
and supported by a sophisticated government IT policy that insisted on
high investment in IT infrastructure and offered funds to Internet service
providers (ibid.). The wide popularity of PC bangs (rooms) played a key
role in distribution networks of online game companies in the domestic
market. This stable network contributed to the growth of Korean game
companies like NCSoft and Nexon, as revenues collected from the dom-
estic market in Korea provided these companies the backbone to enter
the global market.
Two government agencies take charge of development of in the South
Korean online gaming industry. As the Ministry of Information and
Communication (MIC) is responsible for the development of IT infra-
structure, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) focuses on imple-
menting new media and technologies into the culture industries in South
Korea. In general, the importance of supporting Korean culture plays
an important role in directing the design of cultural policy in both the
ministries of the MIC and the MCT. The MIC provides technological
and marketing support to local game companies by setting up overseas
offices under the operation of the Korea ICT International Cooperation
Agency (KIICA) in countries such as China, Singapore, Japan, the US and
Germany. Specific policies include the IT839 in which the MIC focuses
on wireless communication for next-generation ICT development for the
country. On the contrary, the MCT globalises Korean gaming culture into

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a Korean wave, and integrates Korean gaming culture with foreign games
such as Starcraft and World of Warcraft into Korean e-sport.
In Singapore cultural policy focuses upon economic expansion in order
to make the country competitive both in the region and globally. The gov-
ernment concentrates on both economy and technology, with particular
focus on attracting foreign talent and overseas capital to Singapore. This
use of cultural policy started in 1985 when the government first attemptted
to acknowledge the significance of art and culture in its political agenda
(Lee 2004). The Singaporean government prioritises the nation’s economic
prosperity and intends to use culture, art and creativity to build the nation’s
competitive ability in global economy (Kong 2000).
In 1989 the advisory council in the economic committee of the
Singapore government produced a report that set up the blueprint for cul-
tural policy in the country (Lee 2004). The outcome was that National Art
Council (NAC) and National Heritage Board (NHB) were established to
direct the development of aspects of the arts in Singapore (Kong 2000).
In 1990s the government adopted a much rigorous attitude to pursue the
economic potential of the arts by setting up media office of the Media
Development Authority (MDA). Combining efforts from official agen-
cies such as the Economic Development Board (EDB), Information
Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the MDA and the NAC, the
Singapore government designed the Renaissance City Report, Renaissance
City 2.0, Design Singapore and Media 21 to promote creative industry
in the sectors of film, media, design and arts and entertainment since the
late 1990s.
These policies reflect strategies of globalisation and regionalisation that
the state uses to extend the country’s economy. The government offers
schemes to local media artists to apply for funds. For instance, as Kong
(2000) observed, the government used schemes from the EDB to attract
foreign direct investment from overseas media companies. In case of films,
these schemes offered tax holidays to companies that came to Singapore to
produce movies. These schemes also provided waivers of script censorship
to producers who trained and transferred expertise to Singaporeans (ibid.).
In online gaming the EDB aims to generate 10,000 new jobs and to create
US$ 10 billion worth of value by the year of 2015. Specific policies in-
clude the Interactive & Digital Media 2015 Singapore, where the EDB
uses the scheme to establish a local online gaming industry. Strategies
that it uses include tax reduction benefits to attract top-tier interactive and

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digital media companies to set up offices in Singapore. The EDB also

worked with the MDA to encourage collaboration between international
game companies and local game companies to form an industry network
quickly (Economic Development Board, 2007).

The Online Gaming Industries

The South Korean online gaming industry was established thanks to the
efforts of the government to support strong IT policy and fierce competition
among local game companies. Wi (2006) argues that two policies have
been central in the growth of the Korean online game industry: the
broadband policy of the MIC and the Special Military Exemption policy
of the MCT. In 2006 the Korean online game industry recorded a total of
US$ 550 million for market revenues (Ministry of Culture and Tourism,
2007). The export of the Korean games continued to increase to US$ 671
million, and online games accounted for 89 per cent of the total volume
exported. Jin and Chee (2008) argue that PC bangs play an important role
in facilitating online game culture to be popular in Korea. In 2004 PC
bangs accumulated US$ 1,398 million revenue, making up 39 per cent
of the domestic game market (Ministry of Culture and Tourism 2005).
One of the dominant gaming genres for Korean players is, without doubt,
massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG). With the
recent market shift from MMORPG to casual games, a space has been pro-
vided for new game companies to emerge on to the online game industry
in Korea. For instance, Special Force from Neowiz and Kart Rider from
Nexon (Hjorth 2006) demonstrate that the Korean market still continues
to grow after 10 years of development in the online game sector. In 2004
Korea contributed around 51 per cent of the total online games in China,
with a total of 154 games in the Chinese market (Ministry of Culture
and Tourism 2005). The distribution of Korean games also spread across
Europe and the US, despite the fact that the country’s main market still
centres upon Asia for regional distribution.
In 2006, the South Korean online game industry reached market con-
centration of only 5 per cent of the industry, earning an annual revenue of
US$ 9 million.3 There were over 1,500 game companies in South Korean,
their sizes ranging from major publishers and middle-sized companies
to small developers. Together these companies produce approximately
100 new games every year. The high entry barrier leads to the result that

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only around ten games per year break into the existing market structure
and achieve success. The South Korean online game market is becoming
an oligopoly with only five companies occupying top tier with earnings
around 70 per cent of the total revenue of the market in Korea. The number
of medium-sized game companies ranges around 200. These companies
specialise in game development, while another 1,000 game companies
are small developers trying to maintain business by producing graphics,
hosting Web services and making simple board games.4
This industry structure shows that market concentration has resulted in
a self-generating globalisation process as less competitive Korean game
companies began to search for potential markets outside the country.
Although foreign shareholders have continued to increase their ownership
in companies such as NCSoft, HNH and Neowiz, the need for local game
companies looking for overseas markets also reveals a different type
of globalisation that is initiated by the South Korean game companies
from the inside. As most traditional media industries in Asia explore the
overseas market due to the lack of ability to compete with Western media
companies in their national territories, the online gaming industry of South
Korea demonstrates a case of an Asia-based new media industry going
through globalisation processes mostly based upon local factors from the
government and local competition.
In my field interview with the director from the Korean Association
of Game Industry,5 Jang explains the development of the South Korean
industry structure in the following details:

Our industry value chain is seen with the publisher on the top, followed
by the first party and second party…. Under the publisher, the first party
is in-house developer belonged to the publisher. The second party is
the subsidiary company or the investment company. The third party is
independent development companies. The current trend is that major
publishers usually have all of the above in their services…. I think
game industry should have more tight and systematic structure for
further growth. Merger and acquisition is good for stability of this
market.6

Singapore’s cultural policy focuses upon economic gains, and has

led to the rise of the online game developer sector. The government’s
sudden turn to culture and arts in 1990s—and the specific scholarship

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 GLOBALISATION AND THE ONLINE GAMING INDUSTRIES „ 311

schemes to develop the creative industry since 2000s—have ensured that

companies in Singapore have grown and flourished in a relatively short
period of time. The industry structure of Singapore shows the division
of two sectors: multinational game companies (MNCs) and small local
game companies (SMEs). As the local online game industry sometimes
relies on the multinational companies to transfer industry know-how, local
companies sometimes also compete with the MNCs in obtaining creative
talents and applying for government funds.
Three government offices are in charge of the development of the
online game industry in Singapore. The Economic Development Board
takes charge of the MNCs and distributes fund to assist MNCs to set up
studios in Singapore. The Information Development Authority designs
IT regulations in adopting standards and shaping the ICT infrastructure.
The Media Development Authority determines the blueprint of the new
media scene by assisting local start-up companies and reviewing grant
applications to support local artists and game developers. The plan under
the MDA includes a fund of more than US$ 360 million to assist start-
up gaming companies or local artists for the completion of their media
projects (Games Convention Asia 2008). So far in 2008 there have been
seven MNCs—including Lucas Films, Electronic Arts, Koei, Ubisoft,
RealU and 10Tacle—setting up studios in Singapore. These are foreign
transnational media companies from the US, Japan, France and Germany,
who established their regional offices in Singapore. The EDB offers high
investment to these multinational media companies with the agreement
that they will transfer technical know-how to local talent so that, in the
long run, the latter can become entrepreneurs to set up small to medium-
sized online game companies in Singapore.
The industry has grown rapidly in the developer sector. Most of the
companies operate their business on a small scale, focusing on producing
causal games and the mobile game market. Compared to game firms in
South Korea, which has a strong local market, the entrance of Singaporean
companies into the international market began immediately. This was
partly to do with the fact that Singapore’s population of 4 million is far
less compared to South Korea’s 48 million. But it also has to do with the
fact that the nurturing of broadband and online gaming locally has meant
that it is a mainstream activity in Korean everyday life. Thus, Singaporean
companies looked for a global niche market that was still volatile and had

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low barrier of entry so that they could earn profit by distributing their
products in a commercial environment that was larger than the market of
Singapore. South Korea has also become one of the potential markets for
Singaporean online game companies.
Up until 2008, Boomzap, Nexgen and Mikoishi were among the emerg-
ing local companies that released titles in the global market. While the
former two focus on the Western casual game market, Mikoishi chose
to venture into the Asian market. The company works with the Korean
distributor Nexon to enter the mobile game market in Korea. A review
of the games that are produced in Singapore shows that the online game
industry in Singapore has grown since its establishment in early 2000s.
For instance, the leading local game company, Mikoishi, finished the first
made-in-Singapore video game Dropcast for Nintendo in 2007. Japanese
company Koei launched its first developed-in-Singapore MMORPG game,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms Online, in 2008 (Chia 2008).

Industry Dynamics and Market Performance

An analysis of the industry value chain in both South Korea and Singapore
shows the degree of response that both countries have had to globalisation
through cultural policy. The developer, publisher and distributor are the
three links in the digital industry value chain that can give much insight
into these two divergent industries, and in turn comment on ways in
which localisation operates to adapt processes of globalisation. I will first
discuss the Korean case study before turning towards the model provided
by Singapore.
In the South Korean case the local industry has reached saturation in
the MMORPG genre across the three aspects of developing, publishing
and distributing. On an organisational level these large-scale online game
companies collectively form a global corporate network through the high
consumption of the products, both within Asia and in Western markets
such as Europe and the United States. For instance, Nexon is a top-tier
online game company specialising in hybridised styles of games that
merge casual games with MMORPG. In 2006 the company developed the
successful title Maple Story, which earned US$ 222 million worldwide.
By owning intellectual property, Nexon publishes and distributes its own
titles, and has achieved regional success in Asia.

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With severe market competition within the local scene, many Korean
online game companies are forced to enter overseas markets. While the
MMORPG market is solely dominated by NCSoft, most mid-sized and
small-sized online game companies are forced to move to foreign markets
for potential growth. The success of Actozsoft in China is indicative of
the company’s focus outside of the South Korean market in order to avoid
direct competition with NCSoft. Consequently, South Korean companies
work in collaboration with local companies, particularly illustrated in
the Chinese context. Actozsoft works with its Chinese partner Shanda to
create prominence within the country. The company’s title Legend of Mir
attracted such large number of Chinese players that Shanda became a listed
company on NASDAQ. The industry dynamics, as a direct outcome of
corporate competition, was clearly expressed in the words of one mar-
keting manager of the Actozsoft:

When Lineage occupied the South Korean market, Legend of Mir 2

was the result of our efforts to want to surpass Lineage. The quality of
graphic in Lineage is challengable. So we tried to improve and develop
with more fancy graphics. We did not expect that our product could be
so successful in China. Another reason for our success in China is also
because our local Chinese partner Shanda has established distribution
network.7

E-sport has been an important subsidiary element that has helped in-
crease the mainstream saturation of online game players. The popularity of
e-sport operates to merge different social interest groups, industry players
and online game consumers. In 1999 the South Korean government started
to offer support to the e-sport game industry. The Ministry of Culture and
Tourism supported e-sport by organising different social groups to promote
positive public awareness of online gameplay. Cultural policy in online
game under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) conceives of
online gaming as an integral form of cultural entertainment that combines
music, design and animation. The MCT has worked closely with the
Korean Association of E-Sport (KeSPA) to produce an official system
that verifies professional players and certifies standards for game titles of
professional e-sport. Much is publicised globally about the ‘pro-leaguers’:
professional players who can earn around US$ 1 million per year. The

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government encourages South Korean people to play games in public

spaces to increase the visibility of e-sport. In addition to encouraging more
people to take an interest in gaming, the policy also aims to a particular
taste of gameplay that ensures Korean game users acquire international
standards. Most of the official games selected by the KeSPA come from
transnational game companies, including titles such as Starcraft and World
of Warcraft. The e-sport culture is a local attempt to connect South Korea
to the world through global media consumption of online games.
The rise of game broadcasting in e-sport reveals another industry
dynamics of the South Korean online gaming industry responding to
media globalisation. High broadband penetration offers South Korean
game consumers the ability to watch e-sport games in a convenient media
environment. Two media channels, Ongame.net and MBC Game, broadcast
game competitions live through cable and Internet services. The popularity
of e-sport leads to the rise of new media companies such as World of Cyber
Game (WCG) and World of E-Sport Game, Inc. (WEG).
While the WCG organises e-sport tournaments and competitions inter-
nationally, the WEG holds game competition events in China and other
regions in Asia. The latter organises tournament and broadcasts their game
competitions through Korean TV channels. The company also delivers
game content to the international market through the Korean international
satellite network Arirang TV. In 2006 the WEG reached a game audience of
40 million in China. As it also contracts pro-gamers made famous through
winning international tournaments, the WEG’s success led to the birth of
popular e-sport culture in China. CEO of the WEG noted the increase of
cultural exchange between China and South Korea under the influence
of e-sport:

We had 2 million concurrent viewers in China. The Chinese e-sport

fans can use the Internet such as IPTV and web TV to watch our pro-
grammes. In China, we turn good players to ... star players. So now many
Chinese people consider WNB [a famous star player] more popular than
[a famous basketball player] Yao Ming. We have gone beyond Korean
culture and are making a global culture in e-sport.8

Turning towards Singapore, we see, as I have argued, an industry

heavily focused on the direct integration to the global online game market.
Singaporean games tend to bypass the local game users in order to reach

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large-scale market in the world. Consequently, the industry focuses on the

developer segment. The products containing international design elements
are a hybridisation of global game commodities. Local companies tend
to work with foreign distributors and publishers. For instance, one local
company that focuses on casual gaming, Boomzap, releases their titles
under an American distributor; another mobile game developer, Mikoishi,
contracts with a Korean distributor, Nexon. Local game companies show
different corporate strategies by avoiding direct competition with foreign
publishers and distributors. The CEO of Boomzap describes the marketing
pattern of its game production as:

Our consumers download games from portal[s] like MSN and Yahoo.
Our game, Jewel Cleopatra, has reached more than 1 million downloads.
The publisher is now setting up distribution. We will enter the Walmart
and the rest of the retail channel in the U.S. We have developed three
games and have five games in development. Our game is the only locally
developed IP game that has hit the US market so far.9

The production strategy for international audiences determines a fusion

style of art in local game products. Most local companies outsource their
graphic and audio projects overseas, including companies from Malaysia
and Eastern Europe. As the local companies adopt strategies to directly
integrate into the global market, local game companies maintain their
business competitors and collaborators at a global scale. This direct
integration demonstrates a different strategy from South Korean com-
panies. As Singapore game companies see the developed market as their
major target, these companies need to locate their market niche with
American and Japanese players in mind. The CEO of Nexgen discusses
the production style of his company as:

The art style of our company is fusion between East and West. Our style
is a bit of Japanese and Western art in between. We target our products
to [a] Western market. We try to find a unique space. The Japanese
and Korean are now beginning to have their own styles. Chinese game
artists too. So we thought we try to merge the style and that’s how
the concept was merged.10

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The state in Singapore, as compared to South Korea, shows a much

deeper involvement of industry planning, which is demonstrated by both
the EDB and MDA working closely to connect MNCs and the local SMEs.
In 2007 the EDB successfully persuaded the global game publishing
company Electronic Arts (EA) to set up its regional headquarter in Asia.
The presence of EA in Singapore is an example of the level of collaboration
between international game company and the state. The head of the game
team in the EDB elaborates the role of the government in taking the
initiative to nurture the online gaming industry with collaboration with
MNCs in the following interview:

We realise that we are late in the game development industry. We need

to quickly build a talent base.… It is very important that Singapore
adds value to game studios and publishers. Multinational companies
could be undertaking Asianisation or regionalisation of their games in
Singapore. Others could be producing original content here. Lucas
Films, for example, chose Singapore as a studio location to create ori-
ginal content for the global market.11

The result for this policy is that the online game industry grows with the
increasing number of multinational game companies setting up offices
in Singapore. This presence of MNCs on the one hand increases the
employment rate in the online gaming industry. On the other hand it
enhances the competitive environment for local talents and game com-
panies. As some local game companies apply government funding under
the Digital Content Scheme from the MDA, competition with MNCs
encourages the former to balance their own financial resources and makes
way in the global free market environment whilst receiving financial sup-
port from the government.

Integrated Regionalisation

The emergence of online game industries of South Korea and Singapore

creates a regional effect in Asia. This regional effect is demonstrated by
two types of industry dynamics that connects the two industries within the
regional network in Asia. That is, South Korean game companies expand
their business to Singapore due to the need to seek out a different market

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space that existing South Korean companies currently occupy in the global
market. Singaporean game companies also try to tap into the South Korean
game market so that they can find a much larger-scale consumer support
to meet with market demand.
The first dynamic that links the two industries together is the business
activities derived from the regionalisation of e-sport popular culture. As
South Korean companies organise global tournaments, Singapore forms
an extended value chain by hosting e-sport games. This connection of
the two game industries shows effects of regionalisation derived from
business networking between the major Korean IT company, Samsung,
and the local Singaporean company.12 In the case of the WCG in Singapore,
Samsung becomes the multinational company that sponsors the event of
e-sport worldwide. Local company that organises the WCG event focuses
on marketing and event planning of e-sport games in Singapore. The col-
laboration indicates an emerging business model that originates from the
popular gaming culture in South Korea. This industry integration also
reflects the corporate power of Samsung setting up standard of e-sport
culture in South-East Asia. The local company uses the hosting of an
e-sport event to promote local gaming culture. The manager of the com-
pany describes how Korean e-sport opens up business opportunity:

When we first started, we were interested in bringing out gaming culture

in Singapore. We basically organised very small events in shopping
malls and cyber cafes. We knew that there was such thing in Korea so
we wanted it to be available in Singapore.13

It shows that Electronic Arts Singapore understands the diverse nature of

the market in Asia and the needs to prioritise corporate strategies in order
to remain profitable in its expansion in Asia. The influence of multinational
game companies serving as the centre to recruit creative game develop-
ers from Asia is that a particular form of regionalisation takes place at
level of labour division. With multinational game companies coming to
Asia, game developers in Asia now begin to migrate out of their countries
and some move to Singapore to work for multinational game companies.
These game developers bring their skills and share their knowledge with
the MNCs. For instance, a complex form of globalisation occurs when the
Korean code developers transfer their skills to produce games for MNCs:
that is, these Korean game developers become cultural agents setting
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up standard of game development in the global online game industry.

One Korean game developer who works as an art director for one of the
international game companies in Singapore explains the contribution of
Asian game developers to the MNCs:

Multinational game companies need online game experience. Many of

them have never made online games before. They did not know how
systems affect users and how users will react on the system. They wanted
permission from code developer.... For instance, [my company]14 did
not believe that Korean games can develop server technology that hold
thousands of people playing a game at the same time…. That’s why
I came here, to transfer my skill and experience for [my company] to
develop this technology.15

This shows that a new type of reverse cultural flow in the international
online game industry is emerging. The rising migration among Korean
and Chinese game developers shows that Asian code developers are now
trendsetters for games that are produced for the Asian markets. This
phenomenon reveals a possibility of revising existing power structure in
the debate of transnational media companies in opposition to local media
industries in the context of a global Hollywood.
The debate on the competition between MNCs and local industry
players is challenged in the online game industries of Asia. There is
constant collaboration between MNCs and the local states, as explained
with the cases of South Korea and Singapore. While MNCs represent
neo-liberal capitalist power, online game industries in Asia represent the
power of the local. Labour migration reveals a new social order derived
from globalisation in the digital age. The following interview reflects the
transformation that a South Korean game developer experiences after
she moved to Singapore to work for a multinational game company. This
working experience changes her identity at both the national and cultural
levels. She states:

I do not think that Korean game developers producing games for [my
company]16 reflects the influence of Korean culture. This is the age
of globalisation. I can try to be more Korean, but I also need to be
globalised. It does not matter if I am a Korean or Chinese. People play
games everywhere in the world on the same server…. My work is to

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bring my professional expertise to do online game localisation for [my

company]. All I want to do is to localise all my company’s products
into different platforms…. I will try to fulfil this challenge when I work
on this job.17

Conclusion

In sum, the online gaming industries in South Korea and Singapore offer
two examples of industry models that are distinctive from those industries
developed in the US and Europe. This study, by focusing on two different
case studies, has demonstrated some of the specific governmental factors
operating within the production and consumption of new media in Asia. In
the Korean example, online game policy focuses on culture and technology
that ultimately leads to the forming of a prosperous new media industry
on a global scale. In the case of Singapore, game policy concentrates on
economy and technology. The government works with multinational game
companies in order to set up the local online game industry at a fast speed.
Both case studies present a particular model for viewing media industries
in the Asia-Pacific region; both locations operate in global markets through
contrasting strategies for localisation and globalisation. This study has
reflected the complex and dynamic force that is globalisation and to show
that localisation, through various combinations across state and industry
levels, can produce very different models for game production and con-
sumption, both within and outside the region.
Globalisation means state involvement in creating a market for its
local new media industry in the context of Asia. Urry (2003) considers
that globalisation reflects the work of multinational companies forming
their ‘globally integrated network’ around the world. Globalisation is a
reflection of the emergent systems resulting from the dominance of MNCs
in the global market, and are sometimes complex and far from equilib-
rium. He states that the local effects of globalisation are often massively
disproportionate (ibid. 7). That is, there is always possibility to engage
with various practice of complexity that determines the pattern of power
struggle between people, corporations, societies and media industries. The
industry development models in the online game industries of South Korea
and Singapore respond to Urry’s idea with their own practice of complexity.
That is, while the Korean case shows the local effect in creating industry

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 320 „ Chung Peichi

dynamics, the Singaporean case points to the global influence in forming

local online game industry. Both cases confirm the progressive nature of
the government in the Asia Pacific in their use of IT and cultural policies to
integrate to the global market in their national developments. The models
presented in this study reveal strategies for both online game industries
in the use of new communication technology for maintaining creative
cultural autonomy.
After ten years of development, the South Korean online game industry
is reputable for its titles including Lineages, Legend of Mir, Kart Rider,
Maple Story and Mu Online. These games have attracted players in the
regional markets of Asia, creating economic success in China, Taiwan,
Vietnam and South-East Asia. The global establishment of the South
Korean firm NCSoft also shows the potential that a new media company
from Asia is able to succeed as a top-tier online game company, publishing
and distributing international games in the world market. In the case of
Singapore, the online game industry did not take off until 2002 when the
government decided digital media as one of the major policy agendas of
its national development. By working with multinational game companies,
the industry gradually made its way into the regional niche market by
developing game titles such as Steam Iron, Dropcast and Romance of the
Three Kingdom Online. As the visual elements of these games contain a
mixture of cultural elements that target international consumers, the pro-
duction quality of these games show a different model of industry devel-
opment when the government, local and global game companies work
together to preserve production ability of the local online game industry
in Singapore.

NOTES

1. Interview with Dr Y. Jung, Director, Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency,

18 May 2007.
2. In 2007 the Ministry of Information and Communication established the Korea ICT
International Cooperation Agency (KIICA) to support Korean ICT companies through
international marketing. The KIICA was formed with a merger with Korean IT Promotion
Agency (KIPA). The office was changed from KIPA i-Park Singapore to KIICA
Singapore. The KIICA maintained its office in Singapore to promote South Korean IT
till 2008.
3. Dr. Chung, Deputy Director. Software Industry Promotion Division, Ministry of Infor-
mation and Communication. Interview with author on 9 June 2006.

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4. M. Jang, Director, Korean Association of Game Industry. Interview with author on

12 June 2006.
5. The Korea Association of Game Industry is a non-profit organisation composed of
most major players in the online game industry in South Korea. The organisation had
about twenty-five members, constituting top-tier and second-tier major companies at
the time of interview.
6. M. Jang, Director, Korea Association of Game Industry. Interview with the author,
16 June 2006.
7. Interview with J. Hee, Actozsoft, 13 June 2006.
8. Interview with P. Chong, WEG, 7 June 2006.
9. Interview with A. Simonson, Boomzap, 9 May 2007.
10. Interview with A. Yap, Nexgen, 15 May 2007.
11. Interview with A. Poh, EDB, 11 May 2007.
12. The company’s website is at http://www.rapturegaming.com/.
13. Tan, Account Manager, Rapture Gaming, 19 November 2006.
14. The name of the company is replaced due to privacy concerns of the interviewee.
15. Y. Jun, Game Director. Interview with author, 22 November 2007.
16. The name of the company is replaced due to privacy concerns of the interviewee.
17. C.Y., Game Developer and Manager. Interview with author, 15 November 2008.

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