Attracting 2 billion investment in the investment ice age! Modle Studios, a game game recognized for its global potential
- modlestudios
- Jul 12, 2024
- 6 min read
The gaming industry is going through a tough time due to the recent global economic downturn. Major gaming companies are also undergoing large-scale restructuring due to poor performance, and there are even rumors that startups have no way to promote their new products due to aggressive marketing by Chinese gaming companies.
As the chances of success have decreased compared to before, the investment market has naturally frozen. Even before COVID-19, we often heard news of startups attracting hundreds of billions in Series A investment, but now many startups are worried about their survival. According to an announcement from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the survival rate of domestic startups after 5 years is only 33.8%.
Even in such difficult circumstances, a startup that was founded only two years ago is attracting much attention by attracting 2 billion won in investment. Modle Studio was founded by veterans who have gained experience at leading domestic game companies such as Com2uS, NHN, Smilegate, and Wemade, led by CEO Koo Bon-seok, who has 30 years of experience in various fields including development, service, and marketing.
After its establishment, Modle Studios was recognized for its potential and became a company that moved into the Gyeonggi Global Game Center. It was also selected for the Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency's Game Commercialization Support Project in 2023 and the Game Plus Project in 2024, and recently attracted a 2 billion won investment from KJ&Investment Partners-Kona Venture Partners, making it a hot topic.
Modle Studios CEO Koo Bon-seok (Source: Game Donga)
The representative of KJ & Investment Partners, who held a final investment interview with Modle Studios at the IR Pitching Demo Day, one of the side events of the 2024 PlayX4 hosted by Gyeonggi Province and organized by the Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency, said, "We decided to invest in Modle Studio because they have extensive experience in global marketing services and are creating games that appeal to various generations." He expressed his expectations for Modle Studio, saying, "We hope that they will grow into a top-tier global successful company in the future."
KJ&Investment Partners and Modle Studios, which conducted the final investment interview at the 2024 Play Expo (Source: Game Donga)
“The company name is derived from ‘Modle’, an abbreviation of ‘Modul-eung’, a Jeju dialect that means ‘many people gather together’. It also means that the company was founded by veterans who have accumulated a wealth of experience through both success and failure, and it also contains the meaning that it is more fun when many people come together. The corporate vision is also ‘The more, the merrier’, meaning that it is beneficial and stronger when we come together, and we respect communication between users and collaboration between members.”
The reason CEO Koo Bon-seok gives special meaning to the word 'Modle' is because of his gratitude to his colleagues who worked with him. They are experts in the server, client, art, and planning fields necessary for game production, and although they were all talents who had independently operated their own companies, they said they joined the company based on their trust in CEO Koo.
The driving force behind CEO Koo's decision to start a business in a difficult market situation where there are even rumors of an investment ice age is his judgment that casual games that can quickly respond to global trends, breaking away from the domestic focus on the RPG genre, could be a new possibility.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to decide to start a business again because he had already tried to start a business once in 2011 and failed. However, after accumulating a lot of experience at the forefront of global performance marketing for many years, he said that he came to the conclusion that even small and medium-sized game companies can succeed if they analyze the latest trends and minimize risks.
Games under development by Modle Studios (Source: Game Donga)
“The three games currently under development at Modle Studios are targeting the global casual game market. In the past, simple hyper-casual games that focused on in-app advertising were popular, but now, as the unit price of recruiting advertisements has increased, casual games that are more complete than hyper-casual and increase retention (reconnection) are popular.”
'Merge Brothers Saga', which is currently under development by Modle Studios with a target release date of August, is a merge genre that is gaining attention as a popular genre following the 3-match puzzle genre. Since puzzle games have a large female user base, most of them are made as games aimed at women, but 'Merge Brothers Saga' targets male puzzle users with military themes of growing a unit to defeat enemies. The initial version that was introduced as a pilot last year did not perform as well as expected due to completion issues, but it is said that the number of users was considerably satisfactory compared to the marketing cost, so a version with even higher completion was prepared.
The second game, 'Match Mart', is a 3D match genre where you find the items that customers ordered in a mart warehouse that is piled high. In the past, there was a barrier to entry due to the interface problems unique to 3D puzzles, but it is said that this genre is showing tremendous growth as games that have improved this have recently appeared. CEO Koo emphasized that since it is difficult for small startups to try the fast second strategy of quickly creating new games in a popular genre, they need to quickly grasp the latest trends in order to become a frontier that opens up new markets.
The third work, and the game that made Koo decide to start a business, is the SNG (social network game) genre, which is becoming a genre that investors are avoiding these days. Although SNG has become an unpopular genre in Korea, there are many games that are consistently popular in North America, starting with Township, and it is said that there are many solid games that are consistently generating over 2 billion won in monthly sales in Korea.
A new concept SNG targeting the global market, 'Not Alone' (Source: Game Donga)
Koo said, “In the past, SNGs based on social services were popular, but they became an undesirable genre as messages for communication became like spam. After that, games removed social elements and became too business-oriented, which made it a boring genre.” He explained, “Not Alone is a sandbox-style crafting game where you can enjoy various healing lives by decorating your island. Its special feature is that it contains the thrill of interacting with new islands that appear around your island in various ways.”
The fact that a new startup was able to prepare such a variety of projects simultaneously and successfully attract investment was thanks to the government's ability to make good use of various startup support programs and smoothly overcome the initial costly process of establishment.
CEO Koo said, “Because we started the company as a tenant of the Gyeonggi Global Game Center of the Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency, we were able to save a lot on rent, and we received a lot of support, such as securing initial game marketing costs through the game commercialization support project and the game plus project, which was a great help.” He added, “While each startup’s situation is different, from my perspective as someone with experience, it seems that the Gyeonggi Global Center has prepared essential consulting services for those who have just started a business, such as accounting, law, marketing, and investor matching.”
He also added, “Although it is already providing a lot of help, it would be a great help if the Gyeonggi Global Center were to expand its space so that startups can grow steadily. Also, since the cost of software such as Office and Adobe is a huge burden, it is necessary to provide many opportunities by expanding the game investment fund in Gyeonggi Province.”
The Gyeonggi Global Game Center (Source: Game Donga) helped Modle Studio quickly establish itself.
As a senior founder who is already on track, he did not spare advice for juniors who are just preparing to start a business. CEO Koo said, “It is true that it is much harder to start a business these days, but most of those who have changed the world so far, such as Google and Amazon, were in their 20s,” and advised, “Young passion and creativity change the world. However, if you are too trapped in yourself and only focus on development, there are times when you cannot see what you need to see. Since there are many people who are willing to help, you need to reduce risk by meeting as many experienced people and experts as possible.”
#Modle Studios #Gyeonggi-do #Gyeonggi-do Game Investment #Gyeonggi Content Promotion Agency #Gyeonggi Game Global Center #PlayX4
Game Donga Reporter Namgyu Kim rain@gamedonga.co.kr