BTS World, first major game to focus on a K-pop group, finally launches, letting users chat with band members
- Game offers users thousands of previously unreleased photos and videos of band, and allows video and text chats with BTS members – based on prewritten scripts
- A big feature lets users play band manager, and pay to speed BTS’ path to stardom, but analyst suggests game’s lifespan could be short. A sequel is in the works
K-pop sensations BTS have racked up a string of firsts over an astonishing six-year run. Now the seven-member group star in their own smartphone game, marrying two of South Korea’s most important exports.
Netmarble Corp, South Korea’s biggest mobile-app publisher, today unveiled BTS World, the latest attempt to wed the country’s technology and entertainment industries to drive economic growth.
BTS World contains previously unreleased videos and photos of the boy band. The game takes players to pre-debut days to recruit and train the singers. Users can pay to speed up the process of guiding the seven young men to stardom.
Fans can also find out what would have happened if the band members failed to find success and went back to their other dreams, such as being a strawberry farmer or taekwondo champion. The game comes with 10,000 new images and 100 video clips of BTS.
“Those alternate realities are based on some of the members’ interviews, and they said, ‘If I wasn’t in BTS band, my vision was this’,” Netmarble president Simon Sim told Reuters Television.
Social media reaction to the game
The game allows fans to be involved in video calls and texts with BTS members, including cheering them up if they are feeling down.
It’s the first major mobile game to focus exclusively on a K-pop group, testament to the rapidly growing clout of two of Korea’s most promising exports – games and K-pop – as Hyundai cars struggle to regain momentum and Samsung-made semiconductors undergo an industry downturn.
Vey-Sern Ling, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, said it may be relatively easy to generate money from players because they’re already fans who display a strong willingness to pay for BTS content.
But the lifespan of the game could be limited. “Once the content is consumed there should be very little reason to play on, just like how you wouldn’t watch the same movie multiple times,” Ling said.
“Managing BTS myself would make me feel closer to the members,” said Paik Ji-min, a 29-year-old South Korean fan who flew to London to attend a BTS concert and said she would be willing to spend about US$45 on the game. “Just the thought of it makes me smile ear to ear.”
The company’s founder, Bang Jun-hyuk, teamed up with relative Bang Si-hyuk of Big Hit Entertainment, the agency behind BTS, to develop the game. The entrepreneur is betting the recipe will re-energise growth at Netmarble, which trades about 20 per cent lower than when it listed in 2017.
Bang Si-hyuk, who is also known as Hitman, told Bloomberg in 2017 that the company was diversifying into intellectual- property-protected content that could possibly multiply its revenue. Big Hit is now worth an estimated US$2 billion, according to the Hyundai Research Institute. The company is drawing on the popularity of the band to collaborate with Line Corp for character merchandise and Mattel for dolls.
Managing BTS myself would make me feel closer to the members
The K-pop industry is worth about US$5 billion, according to the government-affiliated Korea Creative Content Agency.
Netmarble, whose other titles include Lineage 2 Revolution and Marvel Future Fight, ranked fifth among publishers of Google Play and Apple iOS apps last year in terms of revenue, according to analytics firm App Annie. Founded in 2000, the Seoul-based company has drawn backing from Chinese giant Tencent Holdings and South Korean conglomerate CJ Group.
Additional reporting by Reuters
