A fan thanksgiving festival that continued every weekend in June. The summer market atmosphere became even hotter.
The domestic game market, which is dominated by major games, is attracting considerable attention as they are successively hosting thanksgiving festivals for fans and announcing large-scale updates in preparation for the summer season.
Nexon held the 'MapleStory' 2025 Summer Assembly Showcase at the Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on the 7th, where they announced plans for new job Ren and other major summer updates. On the 21st, they also hosted the 'Fantasy Party' to celebrate the 21st anniversary of 'MapleStory' at KINTEX in Ilsan.
Smilegate attracted significant attention through its summer showcase 'LoAOn Summer' on the 21st, where they previewed new content including the new class Valkyrie and the 'Kajeros Raid Conclusion.' Meanwhile, KakaoGames garnered attention by hosting the 3rd anniversary event for 'Umamusume Pretty Derby' on the 7th, and by holding the 'Valhalla Banquet' to celebrate the 4th anniversary of 'Odin: Valhalla Rising' on the 22nd.
As the service period gets longer, communication with users becomes increasingly important. Through large-scale offline festivals, they aim to express gratitude to fans who have loved the game over the years, and by announcing major updates, they intend to maintain continuous interest.
The ambitious update prepared for this year’s second-half competition was indeed effective. The MapleStory Assemble Showcase, which announced the new job 'Lyn' after two and a half years, garnered significant attention with over 1 million live viewers, and after the update, it recorded a 25% share in PC bang (internet cafe) usage, ranking second. A 25% share is a record high, and ranking second in PC bang usage is the first time in half a year since December last year.
It's remarkable enough that a game released 22 years ago has achieved this level of performance, but it's even more astonishing that it has narrowed the gap with League of Legends, which has consistently held the top spot in PC rooms for several years, to within 5%.
Recently, 'Pegaus Mobile' has been causing a stir, but the original 'Pegaus' also demonstrated its enduring presence through the 'Fantasy Party'. Boasting a long-standing fan base, the event invited a total of 3000 people, with pre-sale tickets selling out in just 5 minutes, drawing significant attention. The event also featured a new gameplay video for 'Pegaus Eternity', which has replaced the Pegaus engine with the Unreal Engine, and introduced Cho Dong-min, the new director who will lead the future of Pegaus. The announcements made at this event are scheduled to be implemented from July 10th, with the first phase update of 'NEW RISE'.
The recent economic system collapse had been drawing much criticism for 'Lost Ark,' but through this 'LoA On Summer,' they showed signs of appeasing the users. Director Jeon Jae-hak began the event by saying, "This LoA On carries a heavier responsibility. I will sequentially explain the contents we have prepared so that users can enjoy the game with more peace of mind." He also mentioned that in addition to new content, they were introducing new systems for economic stabilization, major improvements to Supporter classes, and a revamp of Engravings, addressing many of the systems that had been causing significant dissatisfaction. This garnered attention.
As a result of this economic system collapse, 'Lost Ark' has seen a mass exodus of users and has fallen outside the top 10 on the PC room ranking, but attention is focused on whether it can recover starting from the summer update.
"Umamusume Pretty Derby" has shown a ranking rebound every time there is a major update, and this time around, through the 3-year anniversary event, it has received praise for unveiling new breeding scenarios "U.A.F Ready GO! ~The Sparkle of an Athlete~", as well as the highly anticipated SSR cards "[Simply, Reigns.] Orfeivo" and "[Together, Drawing Sparkle] Tsurugi Ryouka". Similarly, "Odin: Valhalla Rising" has also garnered cheers with the introduction of new job classes such as "Sacrifice" and large-scale guild combat content "Server Invasion War". The game has demonstrated its strength by reclaiming the top spot on Google's revenue charts each time new job classes like Thunder Binger in 2023 and Destroyer in 2024 were announced.
On the 28th, Pearl Abyss will hold its first event outside the capital region, hosting the '2025 Black Desert Heidel Festival' at the Grand Ballroom 2 of Daejeon Convention Center. Each year, the 'Heidel Festival' has unveiled major updates such as new classes and various rewards, drawing much applause. It is predicted that this time too, significant news will be announced. According to the currently released teaser images, next to a drawing of 'Ran,' there appears to be a 'pumpkin' and a letter content mentioning 'Hwaagsoo Mountain.' This leads to speculation that the main character might be the 'Sun Wukong' character, which was previously revealed during the Chinese service of 'Black Desert Mobile.'
In addition, new update contents including additional information on the new region 'Edania (Makai)', first unveiled at the '2024 Calpheon Banquet', are also scheduled to be released. Like other games that have reversed the mood through previous events, it is expected that 'Black Desert' will reveal surprising news to its users, and this is anticipated on the 28th.
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