Nintendo of Korea opens July 7th

by Ross Miller { Jul 3rd 2006 at 9:25PM }

Nintendo is looking to gain ground in South Korea with the launch of a wholly owned subsidiary in Seoul, set to open up this Friday. The 30 billion Yen division will begin localizing DS titles for the Korean language as early as July 20th.

The Korean division will be headed by Mineo Kouda. According to the GamesIndustry.biz article, Nintendo hopes sales of the DS Lite and localized software in Korea will pave the way for a successful Wii launch in the country.

Gaming is South Korea is monumental. Starcraft players, for example, can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. PC Gamer UK did a fascinating piece on Korean gaming culture back in January that is worth a read.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

pete @ Jul 3rd 2006 9:31PM

It's about time they did this, there's such a big game market in Korea and Nintendo has been totally missing out on it for a long time.

Hoomamooma @ Jul 3rd 2006 9:55PM

Nintendo's got Seoul!

Shogan @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:16PM

Well there goes my hopes of winning an online match in any Wii game. *sigh*

Covarr @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:18PM

"Gaming is South Korea is monumental."

I just thought I'd point this out before it was corrected. :)

Nintendo's King @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:25PM

Good Nintendo Good

32_footsteps @ Jul 3rd 2006 10:41PM

Interesting. If what I understand about the Korean video game market (beyond the fact that the Koren version of the dime is worth about 4 cents American and is the exact same size as most American arcade tokens, resulting in a bunch of Korean-American arcade masters) is true, their largest interest is in online gaming. If that's the case, then opening Nintendo of Korea, as opposed to letting the parent company just direct things from across the Sea of Japan, could suggest a much more aggressive stance towards online gaming than has been previous suggested.

Or Nintendo could possibly see a growth of console gaming on the Korean peninsula. Or maybe they're just overextending themselves. Either way, a really interesting development.

Josh @ Jul 3rd 2006 11:30PM

ya i no shogan liek srsly

Really, though, Koreans are damn fine at pwning the rest of the world in any online game, so we're all pretty much screwed.

Zacky V @ Jul 3rd 2006 11:33PM

Maybe they can move into North Korea and calm down Kim Jong...but then again Disney doesnt make him happy

http://www.dartmouthindependent.com/archives/kim-jong-mickey.jpg

Rawkser @ Jul 4th 2006 1:08AM

If Nintendo's smart a part of that 30 billion Yen will go towards a money hat to get Blizzard to make StarCraft DS. With WiFi.

Raynre @ Jul 4th 2006 1:14AM

I played a Korean gamer at Starcraft once. T_T I barely made it past the minute mark...

Miharu @ Jul 4th 2006 6:43AM

But if Nintendo didn't do business in Korea earlier, then what are these official Korean Gamecube games I have? Sure they're in English but the cover and manual are in Korean, and there's no Korean company's logo in them, unlike in say Sega Saturn which was Samsung Saturn in Korea and Super Nintendo was Super Comboy and was marketed as if it was made by Hyundai.

Also there are already some Korean DS releases (like the infamous Touch Dic).

idioteraser @ Jul 4th 2006 11:22AM

Read the article Nintendo had another company do the translating and marketing for them.

ChadHenne @ Jul 4th 2006 11:33AM

Miharu/ Nintendo products have been supplied by Daewon, Inc. for the past ten years or so, and they have been generally hated by Nintendo gamers - overpricing, short supply, and non-localization (a Japanese game discs in a Korean packaging.. and more expensive than Japanese imports)... people had no hopes of Wii's success under Daewon's business. I think Nintendo's not gonna let it happen.

Acdbulls @ Jul 4th 2006 12:18PM

And i'm wondering, where is nintendo of mexico?

idioteraser @ Jul 4th 2006 4:26PM

Yeah i can attest to short supply but the DVDs I got that they made in korea were really well made for the price. Had english dub, japanese dub, korean dub as well as the subtitles.

Guess they gave video games the short stick but strictly speaking console gaming has been giving the short stick in Korea for years.