이 기사는 2022년 05월 04일 08:06 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

South Korean game developer WeMade is going to open a new office in Dubai as it looks for expansion in the Middle East where the gaming industry is growing rapidly.

The move will make WeMade the first South Korean gaming firm to launch an office in the Middle East. Krafton, another South Korean game developer, invested in Jordan-based mobile game publisher Tamatem in December last year as part of its efforts to make a foray into the region but it opted to make the investment through its India unit.

WeMade’s office launch in Dubai is in line with its focus on the blockchain space. This also shows a growing interest in the Middle East instead of Singapore among South Korean gaming firms as their base for the blockchain business after the city-state passed a law that will tighten rules for cryptocurrency service providers last month.

Play-to-earn (P2E) games based on the blockchain remain illegal in South Korea. Therefore, the country’s gaming firms seeking to enter the P2E game market issue crypto tokens and launch those games abroad.

Middle East countries looking for new growth opportunities other than oil have favorable environments for the blockchain business. The Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) said it “will become a comprehensive zone and regulator for virtual assets and crypto including digital assets, products, operators and exchanges” in a statement in December last year. In the same month, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, signed a deal with DWTC to help establish Dubai as a new industry hub for global virtual assets.

WeMade is stepping up efforts to expand into global markets. The company recently attended the Game Developers Conference 2022 held in San Francisco in March and plans to attend major international gaming events that will be held this year.

In line with its global expansion plans, WeMade created two divisions earlier this year: one with a focus on global investments and the other leading expansion in China. Heo Seok-jun, WeMade’s executive vice president and head of the global investment division, worked at SK Square where he led the investment in crypto exchange Korbit before joining the gaming firm.

The Middle East is one of the regions where the gaming industry is growing at the fastest rate. The gaming market in the Middle East and North Africa grew 77% year-on-year in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, according to GFK data. (Reporting by Won-ji Hwang)