LG Display to target 3 billion gamers with dedicated OLED

South Korea’s major display panel maker LG Display Co. aims to attract 3 billion gamers worldwide by fostering products dedicated to gaming as a core future growth engine.

LG Display recently set up a unit for gaming displays within the division that mainly handles TV panels, according to the industry sources on Friday. The unit, which was operated as a task force since last year, is set to develop and produce high-end organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels specialized in video games. The company also plans to launch products in collaboration with global game publishers.

“We aim to launch new OLED panels dedicated for gaming within this year,” said an LG Display official. “We will also expand lineups of related products.”

LG Electronics Inc., the world’s top home appliances maker, plans to unveil its first OLED gaming monitor of 48 inches, equipped with LG Display’s panel, at the end of this month.

MORE GAMERS, HIGHER-END GAMES

The number of gamers around the world is forecast to top 3 billion this year, according to games and esports market data analytics firm Newzoo. Video game players have been rapidly growing worldwide as COVID-19 forced people to stay at home.

Game publishers also launched high-end and graphically demanding games. That also raised the demand for high-performance displays that helps immerse players in games.

“A display is an important factor for gaming,” said an industry source. “Gamers are usually willing to spend more on improving their gaming environment as they are interested in IT technology.”

The world’s gaming display market was expected to rapidly grow. The shipments of the OLED panels for gaming laptops and monitors were predicted to more than triple to 41.6 million units in 2025 from 13 million units this year, according to market research firm Omdia. Sales were also forecast to surge to $5.6 billion from $1.7 billion during the period.

FLEXIBLE OLEDS FOR GAMING DISPLAYS

Competition in the gaming display market is intensifying, especially in the OLED sector. OELD’s response time is much faster than that of others such as liquid crystal display (LCD) while providing clear images with a three-dimensional effect.

The response time is important to gaming display as a faster response time reduces input lag. This ensures that every move a game player's makes on the controller is displayed instantly onscreen.

“An OLED panel’s response time is less than 0.1 millisecond, the fastest among existing displays,” said the LG Display source. “There is no better panel (than OLED) for high-end PC games such as Diablo and other console games,” said the source, referring to an action role-playing dungeon crawler video game series.

Its competitor Samsung Display Co. also increased investments in the development of gaming OLED panels. The company started production of high refresh rate OLED panels for gaming laptops this month to target gamers around the world.

The industry is expected to unveil flexible OLED panels for gaming displays.

LG Display was known to have begun developing flexible OLED panels dedicated to gaming that have different curvatures for each game genre. The company reflected the results of tests on top-class players of popular online games with various panels including OLED and LCD, as well as flat and curved screens for the development.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.