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Smilegate

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Smilegate Group
스마일게이트
IndustryVideo games
FoundedJune 2002 in Seoul, South Korea
FounderKwon Hyuk-Bin
Headquarters,
ProductsCrossfire
Lost Ark
Epic Seven
TalesRunner
Revenue1.577 trillion KRW (2022)
643 billion KRW (2022)
63.3 billion KRW (2022)
OwnerKwon Hyuk-Bin (100%)[1]
Number of employees
~3,300 (2023)
ParentSmilegate Holdings
SubsidiariesSmilegate Entertainment
Smilegate RPG
Smilegate Megaport
Smilegate Stove
Smilegate West
Smilegate Barcelona
SmilegateRealies
Smilegate AI
Smilegate Investment
Smilegate Asset Management
Orange Planet
Smilegate Foundation
Websitewww.smilegate.com/en

Smilegate is a South Korean video game company headquartered in Pangyo. It develops, publishes, and services online games on mobile and PC platforms. Established in South Korea in 2002,[2] it is the creator of Crossfire, an FPS game with over six million concurrent players across the globe,[3] and many more titles. Smilegate is a corporate group owned by Smilegate Holdings. As of 2022, it was the third largest game company in Korea, according to The Korea Economic Daily.[4]

History

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Smilegate's yearly revenue in 2021 was 1.43 trillion KRW ($1.08 billion) with 593 billion won operating profit.[4] It was estimated to be worth $7.55 billion in 2022.[4] In 2018 it had about 2,200 employees.[5] Smilegate subsidiary Stove is dedicated to indie game developers.[6][7][8]

Crossfire

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Crossfire is an FPS that has reached more than 8 million concurrent users around the world. Crossfire is being serviced in 80 countries worldwide including China, Brazil, Vietnam, Northern America, and Europe.

Every year, Smilegate organizes an international Crossfire tournament with a prize pool of approximately 1 billion KRW titled CFS (CrossFire Stars). CFS has the largest scale among all tournaments held by video game companies in South Korea.

Smilegate made a tremendous amount of revenue from Crossfire ever since its release. With the success of Crossfire, Smilegate was nominated as one of <THE TOP 30 DEVELOPERS>[9] by Game Developer.

According to a list[10] made in 2014 by SuperData Research, Crossfire made the most amount of revenue among all F2P games worldwide.

Crossfire was the world’s most played game until League of Legends took the first place in 2017.

Lost Ark

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Lost Ark is a PC MMORPG developed by Smilegate RPG. Lost Ark was first released in South Korea in 2018 costing approximately 100 million KRW during the 7 years of development. It became increasingly popular in 2021 and became one of the top trending games in South Korea.

In February 2022, the game was launched in Northern America and Europe via Steam. Lost Ark reached more than 1.32 million concurrent users on Steam, becoming the most played game on the platform. The record of 1.32 million concurrent users is the second place in the entire history of Steam, the first place being 3.25 million concurrent users of PUBG: Battlegrounds. Considering that Lost Ark was only released in North America and Europe, some argue that Lost Ark was more impactful than PUBG: Battlegrounds, which was released in China as well.

Epic Seven

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Epic Seven is a mobile turn-based RPG game developed by subsidiary Super Creative and released in 2018.[11][12][13] It became Smilegate's first successful title in the West, with the United States at one point accounting more than half of its revenue.[12] In June 2023, it released in China through Chinese publisher Zlong Games.[14] By August 2023 it had reached $650 million in global sales.[13] Epic Seven utilizes an in-house game engine designed to support older devices and improve loading times.[15][16]

Games

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These are the games developed or published by Smilegate. Publisher and release dates are for South Korea unless otherwise noted.

Year Game Developer(s) Publisher(s) Genre Platform
2005 TalesRunner Rhaon Entertainment Smilegate Megaport Action Microsoft Windows
2007 Crossfire Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate
Tencent (China),
Lytogame (Indonesia)
FPS
2010 ProBaseball Manager Online Sega Smilegate Megaport Sports Mobile
2011 Freestyle2: Street Basketball JoyCity JoyCity (US),
Smilegate Megaport (South Korea)
Sports Microsoft Windowos
2012 MVP baseball online Smilegate Entertainment (South Korea) Sports Microsoft Windows
2013 Devil Maker: Tokyo Ncrew Entertainment Smilegate Megaport RPG Mobile
Eastern Blade Smilegate Megaport
2014 Qurare: Magic Library Palmple, iO Studio RPG Mobile, PlayStation 4 (2016)
2015 Dragon Fate Lion Games Studios Smilegate Entertainment RPG Mobile
Bunnypang Smilegate Smilegate Megaport Action Mobile
AZERA Timber Games Smilegate Entertainment MMORPG Microsoft Windows
Crossfire: Mobile Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Mobile
2017 SoulWorker Lion Games Studios Smilegate Entertainment MMORPG Microsoft Windows
Super Tank Rumble Lumidia Games Smilegate Entertainment Action Mobile
TAHN Tencent Games Smilegate Entertainment FPS
ChaosMasters Neoact Smilegate Entertainment RPG
WarReign Red Sahara Studio Smilegate Entertainment RTS
2018 Arcane Straight Gameplete Smilegate Megaport Card Battle RPG
Lost Ark Smilegate RPG, Tripod Studio Smilegate RPG MMORPG Microsoft Windows
Epic Seven Super Creative Smilegate Entertainment RPG Mobile
2019 ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment Stealth Action Adventure Microsoft Windows
Focus on You Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment Adventure Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
Final Assault Phaser Lock Interactive Smilegate Entertainment RTS Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
2020 Crossfire: Zero Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Microsoft Windows
Crossfire: Warzone JoyCity Smilegate Entertainment RTS Mobile
2021 Crossfire HD Smilegate Entertainment Tencent (China) FPS Microsoft Windows
2022 CrossfireX Smilegate Entertainment, Remedy Entertainment Smilegate FPS Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Crossfire: Legion Blackbird Interactive Prime Matter Real-time strategy Microsoft Windows
2023 OUTERPLANE VA Games Smilegate Megaport RPG Mobile
Crossfire: Sierra Squad Smilegate Entertainment Smilegate Entertainment FPS Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 (PlayStation VR2)
TBA SkySaga: Infinite Isles Radiant Worlds Smilegate Entertainment Sandbox MMORPG Microsoft Windows

References

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  1. ^ Chung, Grace. "Online Hit Game CrossFire Mints South Korea's Richest Self-Made Billionaire". Forbes.
  2. ^ Yoon Sung-won. "Smilegate vows to revitalize online game sector". Korea times. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  3. ^ Lee Ji-yoon. "[Herald Interview] The woman behind success of 'Crossfire'". Korea herald. Retrieved May 20, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Cha, Jun-Ho; Cho, Jin-Hyoung (Nov 14, 2022). "Corporate restructure inevitable at Smilegate as founder faces divorce". The Korea Economic Daily.
  5. ^ Baek, Byung-yeul (6 September 2018). "Game firm workers setting up labor unions". The Korea Times.
  6. ^ Sung-won, Yoon (2015-06-04). "Smilegate offers mobile game platform service". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  7. ^ "Smilegate to support small companies with $10 million of funding". Korea JoongAng Daily. 2022-12-15. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  8. ^ Jeong-yeo, Lim (2019-08-21). "Smilegate Stove brings VR games to Korean Army". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  9. ^ UBM TechWeb (2012). GDM JuneJuly 2012.
  10. ^ Tassi, Paul. "CrossFire: Tencent's Top Earning Free-to-Play Game You've Never Heard Of". Forbes. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  11. ^ Lee, Ju-Hyun (Apr 22, 2024). "Korea's Smilegate unveils new RPG Chaos Zero Nightmare". The Korea Economic Daily.
  12. ^ a b Sinclair, Brendan (27 September 2022). "Smilegate at 20: Growing beyond Crossfire, reaching beyond games". GamesIndustry.biz.
  13. ^ a b 이승희 (24 August 2023). "에픽세븐 글로벌 매출 6억 5천만 달러 돌파, 중국 모바일RPG 매출 TOP10 랭크". betanews.net (in Korean).
  14. ^ 원동현 (2023-11-02). "스마일게이트 '에픽세븐', 중국 출시로 제2의 전성기". gamevu.
  15. ^ Byung-wook, Kim (23 March 2021). "Why develop in-house game engines?". The Korea Herald.
  16. ^ 관리자, 스마일게이트 (October 11, 2018). "Everything about the YUNA Engine, the Heart of Epic Seven!". smilegate.
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