Samsung to develop Galaxy Fold, Flip-customized games

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s top smartphone maker by volume, is developing mobile games customized to its Galaxy Fold and Flip series foldable smartphones in collaboration with world-leading game developers, including Epic Games, Tencent and NCSOFT Corp., according to industry officials on Sunday.

The South Korean tech giant is also working with other mobile game publishers such as Krafton Inc., Nexon Games Co., and Pearl Abyss Corp. to develop new titles and optimize their popular games for Galaxy Fold and Flip phones.

Samsung has launched task force teams for game development in four countries with research branches: South Korea, England, China and Ukraine.

The move reflects Samsung's endeavors to boost foldable smartphone sales in the saturated mobile phone market. Foldables are estimated at a mere 1.6% of global smartphone shipments this year, according to market tracker TrendForce.

Samsung believes it has significantly achieved hardware innovation with foldable displays.

But it needs to offer foldable-specific killer content, or software such as user interface/user experience (UI/UX) designs, for them to go mainstream in the high-end smartphone market as it hopes.

“As smartphone performance improves, an environment has been created where high-end games can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere,” said a gaming industry official.

TM Roh, president and head of Samsung’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division, had said the Galaxy Fold and Flip 5 series will become the best gaming machines through customized content for foldables.

In July this year, it unveiled two types of the fifth-generation Galaxy Z foldable phone series.

New games under development will maximize the advantages of foldable phones, which have larger screens than regular smartphones and can use one side of the screen like a joystick.

Fold and Flip phone users can use one of the two displays as control buttons and the other as a game screen, or both displays can be used to create a realistic gaming environment.

“From a consumer perspective, playing high-end games using the Galaxy Fold 5 can reduce the cost of purchasing a console device or gaming PC,” an industry official said.

For game developers, forming a partnership with Samsung will allow them to leverage Samsung’s wide customer base, supported by 1 billion Galaxy smartphone users.

Samsung has also joined hands with Google Inc. and Kakao Games to release Ares: Rise of Guardians, developed and published by Kakao, in August this year. The mobile game is available on Galaxy smartphones.

“Collaboration with content companies is as important as with telecom companies such as AT&T and retailers such as Best Buy,” a Samsung official said.

It is also working with Unity, the world’s No. 1 gaming software developer.

LONG WAY TO GO

Global foldable smartphone shipments are expected to grow by 37.7% from 18.3 million units this year to 25.2 million units next year, according to TrendForce

Still, the pace of growth is too slow for Samsung.

It plans to accelerate its drive into the gaming market with the launch of the Samsung Gaming Hub, a cloud gaming platform dedicated to Galaxy mobile devices, in the first quarter of next year when it is also expected to unveil the new edition to the Galaxy smartphone line: Galaxy S24.  

The gaming business is expected to beef up Samsung’s advertisement revenue as well.

It is generating billion-dollar revenue from smart TV advertisements. Samsung’s MX division plans to use game advertising as a new cash cow.

Earlier this year, the South Korean tech giant formed a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to launch gaming hubs in London and New York for Samsung’s smart TVs. 

Write to Jung-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com
 
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.