South Korean entertainment companies are digging into the brand power and invisible value of their artists to make money from new business by modeling them in games and at the same time refuel the Korean wave.

SM Entertainment Co. has recently launched EXORUN, a mobile game featuring its boy group EXO. Users can play as one of the nine members of EXO and run with their characters while avoiding obstacles. The game surpassed 500,000 downloads in just 10 days after its launch. Putto Entertainment Co. is its developer and operator, and SM Entertainment is in charge of IP sharing and marketing.

CJ E&M Corp. has also released a mobile game Boys 24 Pop, developed and operated by Dalcom Soft. Boys 24 is a survival show that CJ E&M launched in June to form a boy group by selecting 24 finalists out of 49 contestants.

JYP Entertainment Corp. released a music game Superstar JYPNation last month in partnership with Dalcom Soft that allows fans to enjoy JYP artists’ music and game at the same time.

YG Entertainment Inc. are reportedly preparing similar games.

The biggest hit so far has been SM Entertainment and Dalcom Soft’s Superstar SMTown. The game, released in 2014, has got more than eight million downloads and raised 10 billion won ($8.8 million) in cumulative revenue. SM Entertainment plans on expanding investment in developing more star-featuring mobile games.

“We will incorporate our IP into puzzle, board games, virtual reality and augmented reality games,” said an unnamed official from SM Entertainment.

A growing number of celebrities around the world are launching mobile games featuring their own characters. In 2014, American artist Kim Kardashian released “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” which has become a big hit. Following the success of the game, more celebrities around the world have rushed to cash in on their fame by releasing their character-based mobile games.

By Lee Sun-hee

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]