See it »

Korea is known as a country where the government lends tangible support to the local gaming industry. Not only does the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) help fund start-up game companies, but it also allocates a budget of more than $7 million to promote the domestic Korean game industry to overseas markets.

In the US, KIPA operates two offices (which go by the name, iPark)--one in Boston and one in Silicon Valley. In addition, there are iPark officies in the UK, China, Japan, and Singapore.

Today, iPark Silicon Valley went live with the Web site www.gameNgame.com. The site promotes four Korean-developed massively multiplayer online games to the North American marketplace.

The Web site features full versions of the games for download, as well as screenshots, game details, and desktop wallpapers. In an effort to foster interest for Korean-developed games globally, iPark and KIPA are allowing North American gamers full use of the games for free from now until early December. The groups are calling the promotion its Global Test Bed (GTB) program.

An iPark representative told GameSpot that support for these four games is "only the beginning."

"Moving forward, KIPA plans to add more games as they expand their test bed by adding more servers. In [the] near future, new games will constantly be rolling in and out as they get commercialized. KIPA’s goal is to be able to support as many games that are qualified as possible."

In a statement, Kevin Lee, chief executive director of iPark Silicon Valley said, "Popularity of online games in the US is rapidly growing and concurrently, technology and capabilities are quickly evolving, taking online gaming beyond the console. After evaluating twenty-six companies, we selected the final four games based on overall market potential and readiness for the US market. The GTB represents the first in an ongoing effort to vigorously promote South Korea's domestic game development industry and unite online gamers all over the world."

The four titles available to gamers today are: d.o., a 3D martial arts MMORPG; Legend of Mir3, a fantasy MMORPG set in Asia; Navy Field, an MMO strategic Naval Battle sim; and Shot Online, an online golf game. At the end of the GTB, participants will have an opportunity to compete in a tournament being held in New York on December 7 and 8, and in Los Angeles on December 10 and 11. Full details of the tournament will be released as the GTB program for this first flight of four games continues.