Korea game makers lure more female users with Hello Kitty

South Korean game developers have teamed up with Hello Kitty and other fictional characters of Japanese entertainment company Sanrio Co. to lure more young women users, who tend to spend more on merch.

On Oct. 12, Netmarble Corp. released an update of Ni no Kuni: Cross World that allows players to change the background of the mobile role-playing game featuring Sanrio’s iconic characters Hello Kitty, My Melody and Kuromi. 

The game developer has worked with Sanrio before. In January, Netmarble added My Melody and Kuromi to an update of the casual game Merge Fantasy Island.

Netmarble’s rivals have also used Sanrio characters. Smilegate used them for its massively multiplayer online game Tales Runner in July, while WemadeConnect Co., a mobile game unit of Wemade Co., collaborated with the Japanese firm on the Everytown title.

The moves come as the Sanrio characters bask in popularity in Korea, particularly among female 'Generation MZers', a demographic comprising millennials and Generation Z.

THREE AMONG TOP FIVE COUNTERFEITED BRAND PRODUCTS

My Melody, Cinnamoroll, and Kuromi, along with luxury fashion house Balenciaga were among the five most-counterfeited brand products in Korea during the first eight months of the year, according to Korea Intellectual Property Office data complied by Chung Ilyoung, a lawmaker with the main opposition Democratic Party.

The local gaming industry was expected to continue such cooperation to target the market as female users often spend more on character goods. Women accounted for 51.2% of Korea's mobile game users last year, topping men for the first time since 2015, Korea Creative Content Agency data showed.

Sanrio, which created the global-hit icon Hello Kitty in 1974, has been working to develop its famous characters into online content. Last year, it released a mobile game based on its characters with Netflix Inc., the world’s top streaming service.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee at 2juhyun@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.