Smilegate's drama gets a big hit in China, expanding the territory of … 2020-07-16

■ Internet drama made of K-game

■ 100 million views in the first three days

■ IP diversification such as movies and theme parks

■ The founder of Smilegate and Chairman of Smilegate Foundation Kwon "Reminds me of the earlier days when I started my business." 

 

Reporter Lee Yong-ik: July 23, 2020  

"The reason I make movies with Hollywood and console games with Microsoft is that I want to make the company a beloved IP company, not a money-making game company."

Kwon Hyuk-bin, the founder of Smilegate and Chairman of Smilegate Foundation, is a figure that attracts attention whenever Forbes, a US economic magazine, announces domestic billionaire rankings. In the Forbes 50's richest ranking published on the 8th this month, Kwon ranked 6th place, above SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo, with assets of 4 billion dollars (about 4.79 trillion won). However, Kwon, who is called 'the reclusive supremo', focuses more on expanding intellectual property rights (IP) than getting attention.

Recently, his will began to shine in China. The Chinese drama 'Cheonwolhwaseon (Crossfire's Chinese name)' set in the background of the Smilegate's megahit online first-person shooter (FPS) game 'Crossfire' made a hit start recording 100 million views. 'Cheonwolhwaseon', which debuted this week, has only aired two episodes. Still, it is ranked #2 in popular drama rankings in Tencent Video chart, China's largest online video platform, and is accumulating the topic by surpassing 100 million views.

The popularity outside the screen is even hotter. 'Cheonwolhwaseon' was ranked #1 in the drama popularity ranking in Weibo, China's largest social media. The number of posts related to `Super Drama Cheonwolhwaseon` in Weibo's 'Hot Issue' channel has exceeded 760 million times, and the number of related comments reached about 2.25 million. Also, in China's knowledge-sharing platform 'Zhuhu', 'Cheonwolhwaseon' ranked first in popular search terms. In the top 50 of popular search terms of video platform TikTok, five related search words were published.

Smilegate announced its plans to produce a Crossfire drama at the 'Crossfire Vision Summit' held in Shanghai, China in 2016. Subsequently, YouHug Media in China, took charge of the production, completing the 36-story drama 'Cheonwolhwaseon' after a production cost of 270 million yuan (about 46 billion won) and a four-year preparation period. It is the first global case for a Korean esports IP to be made into a drama.

Starred by China's popular actor Lu Han and Wu Lei and aired by Tencent Video, China's largest online video platform, meet the conditions for popularity. The story that young people are aiming for the best position as a professional Crossfire player, and the action scene created by the action director of the Hollywood movie 'Deadpool' drew more attention. It is said that Kwon expressed his satisfaction with the drama, saying, "It reminds me of the time I started my company, struggling in my youth."

Crossfire is considered to be a top-notch national game that can recall the past to the Chinese. Crossfire was introduced to China by Tencent in 2008, showed off firearms with red and golden colours, female characters wearing traditional Chinese costumes which were unique at the time. In addition to China, Crossfire also gained popularity in Vietnam, the Philippines, and South America, and has set a record of 8 million concurrent users in the world and 1 billion game users in over 80 countries. It is THE IP that made Smilgate today.

Smilegate is also attempting to expand Crossfire IP in succession even outside the game. Smilegate revealed its plans for filming with the advance to Hollywood in 2015. Smilegate signed with Neil Moritz, the producer of 'The Fast and the Furious' for the movie.

At the Microsoft Xbox briefing event last year, the Xbox version 'CrossfireX' was released, and it is spurring to be released in the year 2020. On the 23rd, a new mobile game 'Super Tank Blitz',  developed by Lumidia Games and serviced by subsidiary Smilegate Megaport was globally launched. 

※ This is the translated version of the article originally from Maeil Business News