Mobile games to bolster popularity of Galaxy Note 9

At the game special zone from the Galaxy Studio in COEX Parnas Mall, consumers are playing the game by Galaxy Note9.

Samsung Electronics is expanding its partnership with game companies to sell its latest high-end Galaxy Note 9 to tens of millions of domestic and international mobile game players. Samsung said NCSOFT, Korea’s largest game developer widely known for its popular online role-playing game “Lineage,” has been preparing a mobile game specialized for the Galaxy Note 9. NCSOFT hasn’t revealed what kinds of special features it is preparing for the Note 9. However, industry watchers presume Note 9 users will be able to use the S Pen stylus to play the company’s popular mobile role-playing game “Lineage M.” NCSOFT confirmed the firm is discussing partnership opportunities with Samsung but declined to reveal more details. “We are currently discussing partnerships with Samsung Electronics, but nothing has been decided yet,” an NCSOFT spokesperson said.  Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung’s IT & Mobile Communications division, previously told reporters the company “is discussing cooperation with the largest game firm in Korea.” Samsung also said the company will come up with more details about the cooperation in the near future. “We are discussing collaboration with game firms and will give more details before or after the official launch of the Note 9,” a Samsung spokesperson said. The Note 9 is slated to be available on Aug. 24. To meet the heavy needs of smartphone gamers, Samsung has been strengthening its marketing activities with global game firms. The tech giant already announced its collaboration with Epic Games’ popular online shooter “Fortnite.” This is an effort to attract more gamers to the Note 9 smartphone as users of non-Galaxy devices are required to sign up for a waiting list and wait for the invite code to play the Android version of “Fortnite.”

However, Galaxy device users can play the game right away simply by accessing the Samsung Game Launcher app. Furthermore, consumers who pre-ordered the Note 9 can receive the exclusive in-game “Galaxy” skin as well. Samsung said the Galaxy Note 9 is ready to attract more gamers as it improved gaming ability of the smartphone. The Note 9 features a 4,000 mAh battery that allows gamers to play games for long periods of time. The smartphone also has a water carbon cooling system and artificial intelligence (AI) technology-based performance adjusting algorithm to keep the processor from overheating and prevent performance drops. Samsung’s decision to cooperate with NCSOFT seems to be well calculated as many Korean gamers are avid fans of multiplayer online role-playing game fans. RPGs have been sweeping the country’s game market. Excluding Netmarble’s mobile board game “Everybody’s Marble” and Nexon’s mobile football game “FIFA ONLINE 4 M,” eight of the top 10 listed games are RPGs, according to Google Play Store’s sales ranking for game apps on Thursday. “Lineage M” has topped the list for more than a year since its June 2017 release.

By Baek Byung-yeul

(Korea Times)