[THE INVESTOR] Mobile game powerhouse Netmarble Games said on Sept. 21 that it would collaborate with Japanese hit manga “BLEACH” for the mobile role-playing game “Seven Knights”, developed by its subsidiary Netmarble Nexus.

The Japanese comics’ five most-beloved characters, including Ichigo Kurosaki and Ulquiorra Cifer, will feature in Netmarble’s mobile game.

The voice actors for the TV animation inspired by the eponymous comics will participate in the collaborative project, and new game backgrounds and items based on the animation will be added in the mobile RPG, according to the Korean game company. 



“The collaboration with ‘Bleach’ is the first of its kind in the Korean market. Netmarble bet high hopes on the project that will combine the most popular Japanese hit comics and a hit mobile game in Korea,” Jeong Min-seob of the mobile game developer, said.

The serialized comics, first published in 2001 in Japanese manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, sold more than 87 million copies in Japan.

Netmarble’s previous projects with Japanese fighting games “Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator” and “Blazeblue” received popularity in Japan.

The game jointly developed with the “Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator” developers became the fourth-highest selling mobile game on Apple’s App Store last year.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)