The city of Seoul sets out to nurture ‘small and medium-sized game developers’, the backbone of the game industry.
It provides small and medium-sized businesses and startups in the game field with opportunities to collaborate with large and medium-sized companies representing the game industry, such as Naver Cloud and Smilegate, to support game production and marketing that can succeed in the market and even help them advance into overseas markets.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul Business Agency (SBA, CEO Kim Hyun-woo), a small and medium-sized business support organization leading the vitalization of the city’s game industry, announced that they are recruiting companies to participate in the ‘2023 Game Content Production/Marketing Support Project’ by April 13.
The competition is a representative game sector support project of the Seoul Business Agency, which discovers competitive and excellent game content through systematic diagnosis by game industry experts and creates successful cases through production and marketing support.
Including Megazone Cloud and AdX Plus, newly joined this year, Naver Cloud, Smilegate Stove Indie, Xsolla, One Store, and Tumblbug cooperated with partners in each field to expand the scope of support for excellent game content production and global expansion.
This contest project is known as the ‘door to overseas advancement’ in the game industry. In 2022, all of the companies selected for the marketing support project succeeded in overseas expansion, and in the case of ‘Sindorim with Naver Webtoon,’ sales rose significantly, with more than 1.5 million downloads.
Starting this year, the method for selecting companies will become more difficult in order to discover potential game companies and provide customized support. The ‘Content Diagnosis Kit’ evaluates the completeness and originality of the game according to 26 items, such as planning ability, popularity, and marketing. In this process, the direction of partnerships with large and medium-sized companies that fit the needs of support is also decided.
A total of 8 games are selected through the first diagnosis using a content diagnosis kit and the second presentation review process for small and medium-sized game companies located in Seoul less than 7 years old. Game content diagnosis is conducted for all applied works, and expert feedback is provided on the diagnosis result.
In the field of game content production, a total of eight companies are finally selected. The selected companies will receive 30 million won in development support, an opportunity to move into the Seoul Game Contents Center (S-Plex Center, 31 Maebongsan-ro, Mapo-gu), online international content market SPP (Seoul Promotion Plan) biz matching, and follow-up support benefits in connection with cooperative partners. given
In the field of game content marketing support, a total of 10 companies are finally selected. Marketing subsidies are provided to competitive game companies to enter the global market according to the type, purpose, and target users of the game, and follow-up support is planned through cooperation with global platforms.
Each company provides 20 million KRW of autonomous marketing funding for the first stage, differentiates the 30 million KRW 2nd support fund for the final 3 excellent works after an interim evaluation of the promotion performance, and provides follow-up support in cooperation with the global platform. do
In addition, you can receive practical support that companies need, such as consulting from partners on UA (User Acquisition Marketing) marketing strategies and know-how for effective global marketing.
Meanwhile, in order to solidify its status as a global game city, the city enacted an ordinance for supporting the development of the game industry and vitalization of e-sports and launched the ‘5-year Comprehensive Plan to Foster the Game Industry’ to support differentiated policies embodying the values of Seoul. It will be established monthly.
Song Ho-jae, Director of Economic Job Planning at Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, “Games are a high value-added export industry linked to the media, design, and education industries, and the city will provide a stable environment for small and medium-sized game developers to develop creative and innovative games.” We will support the development of global competitiveness by creating a content development environment that can be used in overseas markets so that the game industry ecosystem can be nurtured rather than supporting companies.”
For more information on the ‘2023 Game Content Production/Marketing Support Project’, check the Corporate Support & Seoul Business, Notices menu on the website of the Seoul Business Agency or the Seoul Business Agency Game Team (Production: +82-2-3455-8384, Marketing: +82-2-3455-8382) for inquiries.
