One of the biggest game developers in South Korea, Netmarble, held the 5th "NTP" (Netmarble Together with Press) on 27 December, where the next steps that the company is going to undertake were presented.
Netmarble Chairman Bang Jun-hyeok expressed the future plans of his company as “Netmarble plans to conduct blockchain business with a two-track strategy. Netmarble pursues a model that combines blockchain with games, and Netmarble FNC implements a model that combines games and content with a focus on blockchain”.
Regarding the metaverse, he said: "The need for virtual reality (VR) has increased due to non-face-to-face daily life, and related industries are expected to be active in the future".
The metaverse concept has been used as a limited term describing interaction between users through game characters and communities. But metaverse games will become another reality for new users who seek to find innovative ways to attain wealth, according to the CEO of Netmarble.
The name of Netmarble's project is "Everyone’s Marble" - Metaworld, a metaverse sequel to its board game that has been played by over 200 million users worldwide. Players of the game will through their avatars be able to visit a metaverse version of South Korea, where they can buy and sell land and buildings through non-fungible tokens.
As for the expansion of such a game into the international area, the game will be “play-to-earn”, as gameplay will allow users earn a tradable currency that can be exchanged for real money. But the Korean version will only allow NFT trades, as P2E games are banned in South Korea. Netmarble also announced its ambition to build a "metahuman-based platform" by actively entwining metahumans in various contexts such as blockchain games, webtoons, and web novels in the future. The first virtual female idols named Hena, Lina, and Siu will be presented this year and perform as singers and actors.
As for the already existing projects, Netmarble has plans too. For example, they are known as the developers of two games already featuring the internationally renowned K-pop boy band BTS. The company also intends to create a game dedicated to the legendary group BTS Dream TinyTan House, where users will be able to rhythmically bounce along with their thumbs as members of the group dance to their songs.
Netmarble is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company and was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk. Among their most prominent projects are BTS WORLD, Dragon Ball Online, Lineage 2: Revolution, Marvel: Future Fight, and Star Wars: Force Arena