PlayHard, under CEO Jung-Hyeok Shin, attended the Korea-US Startup Summit, held at Pier 17, New York, USA from Tuesday, September 20th to Wednesday the 21st. Here they met with Leo Thevenet, CEO of Lecafedugeek, for a brief interview about the mobile game startup.
PlayHard is raising awareness, connecting with gamers
PlayHard was established in 2015, and received immediate global notoriety, being selected among the top 3 at the ‘Google Indie Game Festival’, which was being held in Korea for the first time.
Among their most famous titles are Redbros, Factory inc, Hero Factory, totaling 17 casual hybrid games. The place of the company in the market is therefore established, with around 3,5 million downloads per game consistently.
During the summit, PlayHard showcased several games, among them Hero Factory, a comically themed game about heroes produced in a factory for combat. Games such as this one, that target many kinds of gamers, are the focus of PlayHard. They are currently developing simulation, 1:1 PVP and RPG games as well, that feature the same casual atmosphere as previous titles.
The sales of PlayHard have been recorded to have grown two or three times with every passing year since its inception. According to spokespeople, USD 5 million dollars in sales were recorded last year, with the target for 2022 being set at USD 9 million dollars. This development is likely, as the simulator games have been downloaded 2 million times over the course of two months.
PlayHard prides itself on good concepts for games and quick development. Their know-how, gained from experience, is essential for upcoming improvements in existing games as well as new projects.
The company is now looking to marketing through new channels to approach more users, using the summit as a welcome opportunity to raise awareness.
Future plans include searching for partners that can help expand the services offered by PlayHard. Various business collaborations with publishers, marketing, and promotion are in planning, and publishers with experience in the PVP genre, in order to successfully launch “Match Master”, a PVP game soon to be launched.
