Korean government to set up "Global Game Hub"
This is another dug-up news from the past week (the news have been slow anyway). Korean government has disclosed plan to set up the “Global Game Hub” in Bundang/Pangyo area, a “new city” to the south of Seoul.
It seems like the Korean government has this unending love affair with the “Hub” thing. The Koreans, probably due mainly to its geographic location between China and Japan, have always been wary of being squeezed out between two 800-lb gorillas. As such, the strategy has always been to “Dutch-fy” the country (I just made up the term so don’t pay too much attention to it) - i.e. open up the country as much as possible and become the commercial/financial hub of the region, modeling after the Netherlands (another relatively small country neighboring the giants). This often looks like a lofty goal to me, especially considering how resistant the country can sometimes be to foreign culture/companies. Further, in this highly networked era, the “hub” doesn’t have to be determined by the physical location - Tokyo to Beijing is a short flight that doesn’t require a transfer at a “hub”.
That said, the Global Game Hub sounds like a good plan, something that could be a boon to Korean games industry. The plan is to build a cluster so that various players in the industry can get their heads together and churn out innovations. Nokia, with its Finnish R&D clusters, has effectively proven that a well-designed industry hub can take the game to the next level for everyone participating in such “clusters.”
korea.kr/newsWeb/pages/brief/categoryNews2/view.do?newsDataId=148663591&category_id=subject§ion_id=EDS0303004" target="_blank" title="//korea.kr/newsWeb/pages/brief/categoryNews2/view.do?newsDataId=148663591&category_id=subject§ion_id=EDS0303004]로 이동합니다.”>Some of the potential themes to be explored at Global Game Hub: Mobile games that can support multiple platforms; Connected gaming experience across wired-wireless world; Kick-ass games for the rapidly expanding smartphone audience; etc. And interestingly enough, guess who is behind this - it’s Microsoft. The Kyunggi provincial government apparently hopes to attract big FDI (foreign direct investment) from Microsoft, for whom gaming and multimedia is becoming bigger and bigger a business.
Overall, the plans for Global Game Hub are still sketchy and lack details. But it sounds interesting enough, and I’ll keep an eye on it and scoop more details once they are available.
(PS. Postings have been slow, and could remain so for the next week or so, due to my business trip to Bay Area. I met with some folks I know around here over lunch etc, but if you are in the Bay Area and would like to meet up, please drop me a note at changkim at google dot com. GIven it’s a regular business trip, my schedules are pretty hectic this time, but let me try at least.)
