South Korea’s mobile game powerhouse Netmarble is betting on a new genre that crosses massively multiplayer online role-playing and battle royal.

The experimental product A3: Still Alive was launched on Thursday to a fervent response from domestic game enthusiasts.

In January, Netmarble’s CEO Kwon Young-sig made a rare attendance at a press event to express deep expectations on this new game, saying that the convergence of MMORPRG -- a genre popular among Korean players -- and battle royal -- popular overseas -- would be a boon to the company’s game business.

Since acquiring electronic home furnishing rental business Coway, Netmarble has been trying to convince investors about its prowess in its original field of business, games.

A month after the press event, Netmarble made head of overseas business unit Lee Seung-won a co-CEO, signaling that it would focus on overseas markets.

In the fourth quarter last year, 72 percent of its revenue came from overseas, of which North America constituted 30 percent and Japan 15 percent.

On the day of the official release, A3: Still Alive ranked top on Apple App Store and Google Play Store in Korea.

Initial player feedback pointed out glitches in battle royal mode, which Netmarble reported on the official forum at http://forum.netmarble.com/a3 that its team is fixing the bugs.

The global launch of A3: Still Alive will happen only after the team has successfully instilled the service here, Netmarble said, as each overseas launch requires thorough localization of the game.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)