Vortex Gaming

Summoners War celebrated its 9th anniversary this year. In the mobile gaming world, where countless games appear and disappear in less than a year, it's amazing that Summoners War has survived long enough for the landscape to change, but it's been more than that. In 9 years, it has achieved 190 million downloads and 3 trillion won in sales worldwide, and has also ranked first in sales in 94 regions and Top 10 in 155 regions.

To commemorate this, Summoners War held an offline showcase. What are the plans for the upcoming 10th anniversary and the next 10 years? Com2uS's PD Kim Tae-hyung, Business Director Han Dong-gyu, and Planning Team Leader Seo Ji-young explained their vision at a media briefing prior to the showcase.

Q. Summoners War is celebrating its 9th anniversary this year. What are your thoughts?

김태형 =The game has grown over the past 9 years, but I think it was also a time when I learned and grew a lot myself. I had valuable experiences meeting many users and hearing various stories through the game. I will try to make better games based on this. I am always grateful to the summoners who have enjoyed our game for a long time. I will continue to make good games in the future.

한동규 =I don't think there are many cases of mobile games celebrating their 9th anniversary. I am happy and have new feelings as we have consistently achieved results globally and reached our 9th anniversary. We will do our best to provide services so that we can be loved by summoners for even longer than 9 years.

서지영 =It feels like the 1st anniversary event for Summoners War wasn't that long ago, but it's already the 9th anniversary, which is surprising and gives me new feelings. At the same time, I started to reflect on whether we did well in the past, but also had many shortcomings. I decided that I should work harder for the summoners in the future so that I don't have any regrets.

Q. You have not only continued to provide services for 9 years, but also achieved great results globally. What do you think is the driving force behind this?

김태형 =I think we have been faithful to the original gameplay as a turn-based RPG. Nurturing and combat are basic elements that are also found in other RPGs. I think 'Summoners War' was able to be loved regardless of region by refining it more completely. I think it has been loved for a long time because this basic skill has not changed over time and has maintained its value.

Q. You have also released new Summoners War IP titles such as Hundred Year War and Chronicle, but what do you think is the reason why the main Summoners War game continues to maintain its popularity?

김태형 =I don't think Summoners War has any major 'differentiating factors' from other games. Rather, I think it's a case where good games come together to create more synergy. I think that under the good IP of Summoners War, various games provide a variety of enjoyable experiences, and users become interested in the IP itself, creating a natural virtuous cycle. Rather than having differentiating points compared to other games, I would say that good games are creating synergy with each other.

Q. Chronicle has released a PC version, but is there a PC version release plan for Sky Arena?

김태형 =Personally, I think the PC platform has the charm of providing a good experience to users. So I am positive about providing Summoners War on PC as well. The development team has been preparing for a long time. The developers are researching PC platform support to show summoners a great look.

Q. You have been holding various events since the beginning of the year to celebrate the 9th anniversary. What was the retention rate of new and returning users, and what are you preparing separately to maintain this in the future?

한동규 =We have introduced various things since the beginning of the year, such as the Assassin's Creed collaboration, but the 9th anniversary campaign was also linked to the timing, so the retention rate is a bit low. However, looking at the entire global market, new users increased by 30% and returning users increased by 70% before and after the campaign. I think the retention rate of new and returning users is high even though it is a game that has been live serviced for 9 years.

The secret to this is that we have improved the introduction of in-game systems and game events for new users, and the value of the deck is maintained even if returning users return after a long time. The development team is also paying a lot of attention to maintaining the value of the deck, and we want to continue that trend.

On the other hand, this large-scale update announcement is a place to show the direction we are going in the future. We are pursuing more convenience in nurturing and various other aspects, and we believe that this will allow us to maintain a consistently high retention rate in the long term.

Q. What is the reason for naming this 9th anniversary update 'Reloaded'?

한동규 =It means reloading, and it was named that way to mean that we are removing and improving things that were uncomfortable among the systems that had accumulated over 9 years of live service, rather than building new things. I thought that the series of processes of taking a moment to look back at the original fun of Summoners War and taking a breath so that we can continue to enjoy that fun was in line with this word.

Q. What was the most important part of this 9th anniversary update? Are you considering visual or graphic reorganization?

김태형 =The most important part of this Summoners War major update was what to throw away and put down. There have been several changes during the more than 9 years of service, and as they accumulated, there were parts that did not provide as much fun as before. We tried to revive the fun of the original by boldly discarding and refining those parts.

We want to reorganize the complicated battles and logic, and cut out unnecessary parts of nurturing and farming to create a new foundation for our game to provide long-term service in the future.

Regarding graphics and visual aspects, we are of course aware that there is a difference in graphics between the monsters created in the early days of 2014 and the monsters released now. We are primarily working on improving parts that seem a bit old, such as the background and bosses of the Cairos Dungeon.

However, in the process of making these graphic improvements, we are considering how to maintain the concept and art that Summoners War has continued to bring. We are carefully approaching these problems in various ways to solve them one by one and update them satisfactorily.

Q. There are currently 1,500 types of monsters, and it seems burdensome to add new monsters. I'm curious about what kind of monsters you will add more, and how you will solve things like secondary synthesis.

서지영 =New monsters have been added continuously for 9 years, and as a result, there are too many. So I have a lot of concerns every time I add a new monster or balance patch. We are trying to ensure that all monsters are used appropriately, but it is not easy. When adding a new monster, I hope that the monster will be used usefully, but at the same time, I also hope that it can provide something that the summoner has not experienced before, so I also worry about creating new logic and new forms.

The trend of adding 2nd awakening monsters is similar to this. Isn't it about awakening existing 2 and 3 star monsters? We need to maintain the basis of the skill mechanism, but add a new taste, so we are designing while thinking about how to express similarity and difference.

Q. New users are constantly joining while providing services for 9 years. How are you setting the direction for improving or changing repetitive content?

서지영 =That's one of the goals of the Reloaded update. First of all, the opening order of early content will be changed after the Reloaded update. In the past, content was opened in the order of updates, so content that was advantageous to early users was sometimes placed later. We want to reorganize this by bringing it forward so that new users can adapt more easily. In that context, we will also modify the Summoner's Path to suit the convenience of new users, and change the growth structure to be more intuitive. Since the system has been around for 9 years, there are some old parts, so we will try to break away from and improve that part so that users can adapt more easily and play more fun.

Q. Will there be any changes in PVE after the update?

서지영 =We believe that Summoners War provides two main pleasures in PVE. One is the joy of matching the items you want with PVE rewards, and the other is the fun of finding a deck that suits the new dungeon.

In Reloaded, we want to reorganize the reward structure so that summoners can obtain the rewards they want more easily. To do this, new content is added, one of which is 'Abyss Layer'. It is a new content that is reset every season, and I think you will feel the fun of attacking with a different deck and skills every season. Of course, the strategy is not very hard, but I expect that it will still satisfy the need to create a new deck on a regular basis.

Q. You collaborated with Assassin's Creed this year, but are there any other collaboration plans?

한동규 =Several collaborations are under discussion. However, it is difficult to tell you about the timing or IP right now. However, I can say that these three things are that it has high global awareness, fits well with Summoners War gameplay, and is an IP that users will like.

Q. You are gaining popularity even though trends and feedback differ from country to country in global service. How are you coordinating and appealing to this?

한동규 =Since we are providing a global one-build service, user campaigns on a large scale are all the same. Collaborations and updates cannot be different. However, the way to appeal to it and the direction of marketing are different for each country. In the United States, the 9th anniversary event is currently using the keyword 9OAT, which is based on the phrase GOAT, and in Thailand, comedy and sitcom-style marketing are popular. We are conducting sitcom-style marketing accordingly. Com2uS has corporations in major global regions, and we are checking trends and matching campaigns to the right places in cooperation with each corporation.

Q. You are successful globally, but I heard that the sales ratio between Korea and overseas markets is about 1:9. What is your strategy to appeal more in Korea?

한동규 =I think there is a difference in perspective on domestic sales. Summoners War is being serviced in over 150 countries, and Korea accounts for 10% of that. Occupying 10% in a single scale is a very large proportion. Including not only the traffic scale but also the passionate feedback from users, the domestic market is important. Our users in Korea have a high understanding of the game and the community is active, so we are also actively monitoring the feedback from our users in Korea.

However, it was a pity that offline activities such as meeting users directly or supporting user gatherings were not 활성화 because the COVID-19 period was a bit long. This year, we are expanding offline events such as the 9th anniversary showcase, as well as the Korea-Japan Super Match and guild meeting support.

Q. What is the target for Summoners War's future sales or number of users, and what are your goals and vision for the next 10 years?

김태형 =The goal is not to maintain it. The goal is to grow further, and to go beyond the game and move towards culture.

한동규 =Summoners War is a game that has achieved cumulative sales of over 3 trillion won and 190 million downloads. So, rather than increasing the number of users or increasing sales, I think the goal and vision for the future is to establish itself as a culture that transcends 'games'. We are already holding a global e-sports competition called SWC. We are expanding in various ways, including expanding e-sports and publishing comics and light novels based on the Summoners War universe in cooperation with Toei.

Q. I think the rune reorganization is the core content, but I'm worried that there will be balance or other problems at this point. What is the reason for deciding to reorganize this part, and what impact do you expect it to have on gameplay in the future?

서지영 =I think you will think that it has changed a lot from the existing one, but it is a little different. If you think about rune farming, I wonder if it is right for the same rune to drop from five dungeons. Isn't the efficiency too bad? So I thought it would be right to concentrate rune farming on the Cairos Dungeon and distribute the use of Rift Raid to gems or other items. The two new dungeons added this time were also prepared with consideration for farming efficiency along with new experiences.

김태형 =There was no need for any bold decisions to reorganize the rune system. While preparing for this update, an idea came out to remove reinforcement failures, and everyone immediately agreed. Lowering fatigue and making changes, I thought it was a job of refining the game to make it more fun. We had been preparing internally for a long time, but while reviewing it, everyone decided that it was time, so we applied it like this.

Q. You said you are 'removing things', so I'm curious if you will be adding something big for the 10th anniversary. If so, can we expect engine replacement or the addition of a PC client for the 10th anniversary like other games?

김태형 =It is true that we are preparing various things for the 10th anniversary. Since it is a symbolic time, I think not only users but also various places will be interested. However, it is difficult to tell you right now because the situation has not been clearly organized.

Engine replacement is a concern related to graphic reorganization. I have a lot of concerns about what kind of visual upgrades should be made while maintaining art and identity, and whether we can do that while increasing the level of perfection. I think I can tell you after that concern is resolved first.

And we cannot leave out the advantages of having our own engine. Since Summoners War is based on its own engine, many monsters move within the game, but there is no strain on low-spec devices. Recently, Unreal Engine or Unity Engine have quite high basic specifications, so I think we need to consider various things to match low-spec devices.

Q. Users are worried because the rune system reorganization will inevitably affect the balance and various other things, so I think a more detailed explanation is needed. Also, there are comments that the collaboration is focused on old IPs, so I'm curious about the future direction of collaboration.

김태형 =Of course, I am aware of users' concerns. Speaking of BM related to runes, we have no intention of selling intangible runes other than dungeon drops at all. The two new types of runes are not intended to increase sales. Rather, the goal is to add alpha to the fun of Summoners War's existing strategic battles by utilizing various runes.

한동규 =You don't have to worry too much about BM. And speaking of the comment that the collaboration is old, I hope you will see it as 'classic'. Since we are providing global service, I think that is the conclusion in the process of selecting IPs that are influential and well-known enough to appeal to the global market. We will also consider something a little trendy and young for the next IP.

Q. Finally, please say a word to Summoners War users.

김태형 =I think listening to the opinions of many users is the way to make a good game. We are listening to and considering users' opinions through various channels. I will try to make a good game.

한동규 = We are collecting and coordinating opinions from various regions. Summoners War is a lifestyle pattern for Summoners War users. I will work harder with this update as an opportunity to keep that rhythm going.

서지영 =Thank you for your love so far. I want to provide service for 10 or 20 years longer. I hope that Summoners War will grow old together with users. I will work hard so that we can move forward together.

Webzine InvenReporter Yoon Seo-ho
2023-06-27