With Korea exporting not only big-budget blockbusters like Lies of P and Stellar Blade, but also indie-sized hits like Dave the Diver and Sanabi, you would think that the country is attracting more foreign publishers to invest in new indie games. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case, as former Sony Interactive Entertainment executive Shuhei Yoshida discovered when he attended the Busan Indie Connect (BIC) Festival in August.
In a recent interview with 4Gamer, Yoshida expressed disappointment with how few publishers were in attendance compared to the increasing number of quality Korean indie games being showcased at the event. Most of the publishers were Korean, save for Devolver Digital, which was the only foreign indie publisher present.
Yoshida likens Korea’s indie game scene to Japan’s own, which only started to become more widely accepted during the COVID-19 pandemic. During these years, the general public started seeing more commercial TV shows about indie game developers, and major businesses started campaigns and contests to fund emerging indies. From there, the popularity of indie games skyrocketed in Japan.
According to Yoshida, while Korea’s indie game scene has also been slowly growing, it hasn’t quite reached this kind of level of awareness among consumers. He gives it about two or three more years before it really takes off, and both local and foreign audiences start to appreciate it more.
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