Domestic game companies seeking to target the North American market will launch a large number of “zombie” genre games this year.
Zombie games are particularly popular in North America and Europe, and domestic game companies, which have mainly stayed in Asia, are eyeing the genre to expand their territory.
According to the game industry, WeMade, Kakao Games, and NHN are all focusing on their final development work with the aim of releasing expected zombie genres this year.
First of all, in the second quarter, NHN’s new “Darkist Days,” which began open beta testing on the 24th, and “Midnight Walkers,” developed by One Way Ticket Studio under WeMade Max, are expected to be released.
“Darkist Days” contains the process of surviving by forming a community with other survivors in the zombie apocalypse worldview. Based on Korean, it supported English, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish, targeting global users.
One Way Ticket Studio’s “Midnight Walkers” is a zombie shooting game that explores the huge complex and competes with zombies as well as other survivors to escape the building. It is also being developed targeting the global market by submitting it to the global game show “Gamescom 2024” held last year.
One of the reasons why game companies have been inserted into zombie games, which have not been developed much in Korea, is the preference for zombie genres in the North American and European markets.
“If there is a ghost in Asia, North America or Europe has a zombie genre,” a game industry official said. “Successful zombie games such as ‘Last of Us’ and ‘Biohazard’ continue, and the genre of zombie itself is a point that can be appealed in the West.”
In the West, zombies act like a cultural code, as shown by the steady success of movies featuring zombies such as “Resident Evil” as well as games.
Kakao Games, which is trying to rebound in performance with a number of new works this year, is also developing a zombie survival game “God Save Birmingham” with the goal of the fourth quarter of this year.
Unlike other games that depict modern or future society, the game is considered a difference in the medieval world view set in Birmingham, England, in the 14th century.
Zombie games set in Korea are also being produced.
With the game “Paradise” being developed by Nexon, not only combat contents against zombies in the ruined city center of Korea, but also simulation elements that find and trade items that users can use and make money to survive were fused.
“Paradise” began development in 2023 and has yet to be set for release, but it is being developed as one of Nexon’s large projects.
It is also notable that game companies are developing games toward consoles to catch console-oriented users in North America and Europe.
Among the above games, all games except ‘Darkest Days’ will be developed simultaneously on PC and console or introduced on PC first and then expanded to consoles.
