Netmarble and NCSoft, two of South Korea’s major game developers, are competing for mobile game players with the back-to-back releases of new titles. Netmarble on Wednesday launched action role-playing mobile game Marvel Future Revolution in some 240 countries, including Korea, and early signs were positive as the game shot to No. 1 on the RPG charts on Apple’s App Store in 78 countries, based on prerelease downloads that were made available Tuesday. The first open-world Marvel

The advent of intelligent humanoid robots depicted in sci-fi films is still thought to be a thing of the distant future, but more South Korean companies in a wide range of industries have begun to adopt simpler robots in a bid to remain competitive in the long term. Not only telecom operators and search engines, but also tech startups that rely on online platforms are rushing to deploy robots in a bid to nurture the long-term potential of robots in connection with artificial intelligence, clo

Last week, foreign investors sold a net 6.3 trillion won ($5.36 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics shares and 2.4 trillion won of SK hynix shares on the local stock market, amid concerns about a drop in DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips in the coming months. The continued sell-offs of Samsung and SK hynix by foreign investors weakened their share prices. Samsung’s share price ended at 72,500 won Friday, down 12.9 percent from a recent high of 83,300 won recorded on Aug. 5.

Stop to think before you act. This is an incredibly useful advice that can be applied to a number of situations. In an era of ubiquitous mobile devices and platforms, the timeless advice should be modified into a longer, more complex version: Stop to think before you put any “too personal” photos on your phone and cloud storage. Apple, a self-styled champion of privacy, recently surprised many security experts and ordinary users by announcing a software update that is feared to set

South Korea’s mobile carriers are adjusting their business strategy to expand their non-telecom businesses in a bid to take a share in the growing demand for digital content delivered via both mobile and fixed-line networks. SK Telecom, KT and LG U+ each witnessed an increase in the share of non-telecom business in their total revenue in the April-June period this year, as more people stayed home and spent time watching video on IPTV and mobile platforms. Top executives of the three ma

Lost Ark, developed by Smilegate, has emerged as the most popular title in the role-playing PC game category in South Korea, a surprising performance given its rise to the top slot took some time and benefited from a host of external factors. The multiplayer game was launched in November 2018. As with other mainstream games, it pulled off a stellar record when it formally kicked off its service, drawing a record 350,000 concurrent users. Over time, its popularity declined as fickle players mi

For Lee Ji-min (not her real name), a 32-year-old employee at a South Korean gaming company, the shift to working remotely offers clear benefits: no grueling commute and a distraction-free work environment at home. Lee is one of many Korean workers who have switched from office-based work to working from home due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Although not all Korean companies allow employees to fully work from home, the number of those working remotely has soared as the country has yet

South Korea’s personal computer market continued to expand in the April-June period of 2021, helped by a solid demand due to the prolonged pandemic, but there were signs that the growth rate would taper off, latest industry data showed. Domestic PC shipments came in at 1.5 million units in the second quarter, up 3.1 percent from a year ago, according to the data from market researcher IDC Korea. The second-quarter PC shipment volume marked a sharp drop from 1.89 million units in the Ja

The idea of implementing a four-day workweek is gaining favorable views among South Koreans, reflecting the heightened perception of work-life balance and diverse work patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed Thursday, In a survey of 4,155 job seekers by human resources service Saramin, 83.6 percent of respondents said they have a positive view of a four-day workweek. The top reason for favoring a four-day workweek was work-life balance (72.4 percent). The idea of work-life balance

Shares of South Korea’s major game developers and publishers declined on Tuesday after Chinese state media slammed games as “spiritual opium,” highlighting the close link between the two neighboring countries within the global gaming industry as well as risks linked to China’s regulatory whims. The turmoil was sparked by a state-run media outlet in China that published a negative article about gaming and called for stricter controls on “addictive” games. As

IPTV operators in South Korea are attempting to nurture a new segment -- “tablet TV” -- to meet growing demand for another TV screen, as more people tend to stay home due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming on-demand video via mobile phones and tablet computers is nothing new, as millions of Koreans already enjoy Netflix and other services. For IPTV operators that rely heavily on fixed-line networks, however, such a “cord-cutting” trend in which viewers dit

The number of ransomware attacks on Korean companies, organizations and schools is on the rise and hackers are using more sophisticated techniques to exploit vulnerabilities in security systems, the country’s state-run cybersecurity body warned. Ransomware refers to malware that infects computer and mobile devices by exploiting system vulnerabilities, and threatens to destroy data unless a ransom is paid. According to the Korea Internet & Security Agency, 78 ransomware attacks on

A revision bill has been proposed to allow game players to withdraw from their contracts with game developers and get refunds when faced with unfair practices. “If game developers and publishers decide to roll back their games to a previous version as a result of their own mistakes, they must provide proper compensations to game players,” said Rep. Yang Jung-suk, an independent lawmaker, who authored the draft of the revision bill to the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic

Last week, I was struggling to fix the nagging security upgrade problem of my blog. To find a way to update an encryption security protocol, I studied dozens of online documents, but I felt clueless as they were filled with too much jargon and complex code-related instructions. I had no other choice but to take up the technical problem myself and somehow manage to stop the warning message popping up, since it’s a self-hosted blog. In other words, there is no kind technical assistant to r

A growing number of clashes between parents and their children revolve around the use of parental control apps that filter out obscene content on online platforms, but there are concerns these apps may not even be working. The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic is forcing students to study from home through smartphone apps, prompting parents to apply filtering apps to block harmful online content. Parental control apps can be installed on computers and mobile devices, with a comprehensive list of

The prolonged global semiconductor shortage is having a sweeping impact on a wide range of sectors ranging from cars and computers to smartphones and gaming devices. South Korea, home to major chipmakers and tech players, is keen to soften the effect, but the outlook remains mixed, experts said. Last week, German automakers Daimler and BMW were forced to temporarily slow down or halt assembly lines, citing the global semiconductor drought. Automakers elsewhere faced similar disruptions caused

A growing number of South Korean companies are rushing to join the fledgling digital blockchain market based on nonfungible tokens, as artists, museums and diverse digital asset holders are exploring the potential of the new segment. 　 An NFT, a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, is gaining popularity as a way for people and companies to use the blockchain technology to buy and sell the ownership of digital assets, ranging from works of art to games and videos. Korean companies with a

“Why We Fail to Read” By Ji Bi-won (Memento) “Why We Fail to Read,” a collection of essays written by Ji Bi-won and published by Memento, starts with a simple yet thought-provoking question: Why are certain texts almost undecipherable? In this digital era, texts are overflowing from online news outlets to social media to mobile messengers. People tend to read and write more as the virtual space for writing expands at a breakneck pace. With the explosive growth of rea

The trouble-laden Tokyo Olympics is scheduled to kick off Friday with a scaled-down opening ceremony amid deepening concerns about a surge of COVID-19 infections among athletes and other participants. After an unprecedented year-long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 11,000 athletes from 206 countries are scheduled to compete in 33 sports at the Tokyo Olympics, which will be held at 42 competition venues through Aug. 8. But the mood remains jittery as the host city is in a state

South Korea’s “3N” game developers -- NCSoft, Nexon and Netmarble -- are estimated to have suffered disappointing earnings in the second quarter, hurt by a slew of negative developments amid the deepening distrust of players, brokerages and industry sources said. The gloomy earnings outlook came as NCSoft and Nexon did not produce notable hits in the April-June period, and with Netmarble’s much-anticipated mobile title Cross Worlds yet to contribute to the company&rsquo