Korean government backs serious games
Ministry offers $63.52 million investment to boost expanding market
The South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has revealed plans to inject KRW 80 billion (USD 63.93 million/EUR 46.83 million) into the serious games market.
According to a report from the Korea IT Times the ministry's goal is to grow the market to a value of KRW 500 billion (USD 400 million/EUR 293 million) by 2012. The package was proposed by the Serious Game Forum, which was launched by the ministry and website/newspaper ETnews last July.
"The functional game market is at an early stage, but the market is an emerging blue ocean. The government is going to give support to prompt private investment in that field," said minister Yu In-chon.
The South Korean government is heavily involved in promoting and funding its various IT industries, with further input coming from the Korea Culture and Content Agency, as well as KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) and the Serious Game Institute.
No specific companies or programmes have been named in regards to the investment, but typical applications include medical simulations, educational titles and military simulations.