Hangame

Hangame (Korean: 한게임) is a popular South Korean online game portal operated by NHN Corporation. Launched in December 1999, Hangame offers casual, first-person shooter, MMORPGs, sports, and other genres. With over 24 million members and a peak concurrent user base of 240,000 in South Korea, it is the country's largest game portal.^[2] Hangame also has affiliates in Japan (Hangame Japan), China (Ourgame) and the United States (ijji). It also offers channeling and publishing services for many popular online games.

History

Hangame was launched in December 1999 as the online game service of Hangame Communications, which changed its name to NHN in September 2001. In 2000, Hangame entered the Japanese online market with Hangame, Japan. The following year, Hangame became an online game publisher. In 2003, Hangame began offering mobile games. In 2004, it moved into the Chinese market with Ourgame, a joint venture company with Sea Rainbow Holdings Corp. In 2007, it entered the U.S. market with the launch of the English service ijji.com.

Features

Hangame provides both casual titles, like board games and card games, as well as hard-core games like first-person shooters and massively multi-player online role-playing games. All games offer the use of avatars and community services, allowing players to interact with each other. Many games also offer in-game items -- such as clothing, armor, weapons, etc. -- that can be purchased for a small fee. Hangame offers both for-fee and free-to-play games.

References

See also

• Ijji

External links

Chosun Ilbo, "GoGoXing Opens Public Service on the 17th," January 16, 2008 (in Korean). [1]

Monitoring, "Hangame Evolves into Customized Game Portal," January 14, 2008 (in Korean). [2]

Dong-A Ilbo, "'Tales Runner' Achieves 15,000 Concurrent Users," December 31, 2007 (in Korean). [3]

Eye News 24, "NHN's 2008 Project: 'We Aim to Reach the Top in Game Distribution'" (in Korean). [4]