There is something about the South Korean video gaming industry that has the unique ability to make PC gamers in the west squeal and squirm at the same time, while also bringing western game publishers to the point of salivation over their revenue generating potential. On the one hand there are the high profile games that are popular and profitable all over the world like NCSoft's City of Heroes, City of Villains and the Guild Wars Franchise. But then there are games seem so off the wall from a western perspective that you just have to laugh. The thing is that they seem to do REALLY well in Asia. A good past example of this is Freestyle Street Basketball. This online sports game utilizes a free-to-play model with micro transactions for in-game gear and the like that cost. Sounds like it would be huge flop, and it almost certainly would in the US, but in the pan Asian market since it went online in 2005 it has gained more than 32 million registered users. Uh wow. Again, good thing it is free because I'd never pay to play that online. A similar example, and the point of this post is a game that I came across today via a post on Kotaku, Husky Express.
This time we are talking a MMORPG. Yup, raising dogsled puppies and racing them online within a massive community, with levelable RPG elements. Again, wow. How does that even make it out of the idea pitch section of the project cycle? Who knows, but considering we are talking gadget happy South Korea, the most heavily wired society in the world, it may just be a hit. If it is, and I can get a copy for free or cheap and it is free to play online, this time I am in.
Am I off-base here? Take a look at the trailer for yourself and let me know. At the least you'll get a good laugh out of it.
–Hobson's Choice
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