This Week In Korean Online Gaming News: From Rift To G-Star

[Gamasutra rounds up the week's biggest reports on South Korea's booming online games market from This Is Game, the leading English-language site about the country's game industry.] In our latest round-up of news from South Korea's online games space, we look at the upcoming open beta launch for Rift, and the G-Star 2011 game lineups for Nexon and Netmarble. NetMarble Launching Rift Open Beta In Q2 2012 South Korean developer and publisher Netmarble announced that it will launch an open beta for Rift, the Trion Worlds-developed, fantasy-themed and client-based MMORPG that debuted in the West in March of this year, in the second quarter of 2012. The company intends to introduce Rift to Korean gamers at next month's local trade conference G-Star, followed by a closed beta in the first quarter of 2012. It will launch the game with subscriptions, and a user interface adapted specifically for the Korean market. "In 2012, Netmarble will write a new history in the Korean RPG market," said a representative for the firm, which also publishes popular free-to-play first-person shooter Sudden Attack. "With Rift, we will bring about our second heyday as a major publisher of not just FPS titles but MMORPGs." Nexon Unveils New Titles To Be Showcased At G-Star MapleStory publisher Nexon announced its lineup of games that it will display at G-Star 2011 when the Busan conference runs on November 10-13, including several new titles that have been previously shown off, and a few that were unrevealed until now. The games include Cypher, a strategy/team-based 3D action game in the "Aeon of Strife" genre; Atlantica S, a social game based on Atlantica Online; Age of Hero, a fantasy-based MMORPG; and Project: Reload, a side-scrolling action shooting game. Nexon also intends to bring Epic of the Three Kingdoms, a turn-based strategy RPG based on the Three Kingdoms period that's inspired so many Koei titles; and Space Tanks Online, a multiplayer tank game. It's still unclear which, if any, are mobile projects. Netmarble Reveals Its G-Star Games Netmarble will have four booths at G-Star, and it intends to show a lot more than just Rift. It will bring S2 (previously Project RAW), the first new title from the Sudden Attack team in six years. The publisher will hold a closed beta at G-Star, allowing attendees to play it. The company will also have adult-targeted action MMORPG Bloody Hunter, 2D sidescrolling action MMORPG Core Fight, and "stylish action" shooting game Guns TSD, the last of which will be shown for the first time. Ghosts 'n Goblins Online will be at the event, too. "Netmarble has focused on our publishing business so far and has built a successful line-up in Korea," said Netmarble representative YoungKi Cho. "Starting next year, however, we will also launch self-developed online games in order to expand our business globally." [This story was written with the permission of, and using material from ThisIsGame Global, the leading English-language site about the South Korean game industry.]