[Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com]
At the center of a maze of booths occupied by local firms at an exhibition hall sits EPIC Games, a major American game maker known for a "Gear of War" series, crowded with visitors wearing virtual reality headsets.
The booth for Epic Games, which created Unreal Engine, a popular game engine used for the development of PC and mobile games, is far bigger than that of any other exhibitor. It has spearheaded the VR gaming industry, actively expanding its business by helping developers with its graphic engine.
On June 30, the final day of a three-day exhibition "VR SUMMIT" at a KINTEX Hall in Ilsan northwest of Seoul, hundreds of people visited the Epic Games booth to get immersed in adventuring through the world they never experienced.
"It is true that the future of the VR gaming market is uncertain but we thought giving developers a chance to actually develop a VR game was important," Epic Games Korea's senior marketing communications manager Yu Sun-hee told Aju News in an interview. "That's one of the reasons why we opened up on the source code for Robo Recall."
[Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com]
Epic Games released a full MOD kit of the popular VR game with a full source code earlier this year so that developers can tinker around and find new tools to create better games. Developers are allowed use its engine for free unless they make a profit of more than five million US dollars.
"It's all about surviving in the jungle together," said Yu. "This way, more developers will feel less burdened when using our Unreal Engine. It's better to us if we have more developers because our base will be expanded in the market."
The company aims to set a strong foothold in South Korea where Unreal Engine is widely used in the VR and mobile gaming industry. "Our Company's mobile division is located in South Korea," Yu said, pointing out that South Korea is the 10th largest market in the world and the second largest in Asia.
In South Korea, the popular mobile game, "Lineage Revolution", has been launched successfully, using Unreal Engine. Epic Games said it would strengthen localized services, providing technical support and translation services for South Korean gamers and developers.
Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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swatchsjp@ajunews.com
