Korean game firms look abroad as domestic gaming hits decade lowSouth Korean gaming companies are increasingly turning to overseas talent and executives as they look to expand beyond a domestic market that has become both saturated and increasingly challenging.Gravity, the Korean game developer and publisher best known for its global hit massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "Ragnarok Online," said July 13 that it has shifted to a co-CEO structure, appointing Park Hyun-chul and Yoshinori Kitamura to jointly lead the company. Founded in 2000, Gravity has built a global business around the Ragnarok intellectual property.Park will oversee the strengthening of Gravity Korea’s core operations, including game development and management, organizational operations and talent management. Kitamura will take charge of global business strategy, IP strategy, new business initiatives and collaboration with the company’s overseas subsidiaries. Park had previously served as Gravity’s sole CEO since 2012. Chris Chung (Neowiz) The move follows a similar push by Neowiz to bolster its global ambitions through organizational restructuring and overseas expertise. The Korean game company said on July 9 it established a global business group and appointed Chris Chung, a veteran executive who previously led international operations at multinational gaming company Wargaming, to head the new division. Neowiz, founded in 2007 after being spun off from Neowiz Holdings, develops and publishes games across PC, mobile and console platforms, with popular titles including Lies of P and Cats & Soup. Chung has led businesses spanning game development and global franchise operations across Korea, North America and Europe. At Wargaming, he oversaw major global IP including World of Tanks and World of Warships.The industry’s growing reliance on international talent comes partly as Korea’s gaming market faces a shrinking player base.According to a 2025 survey of game users jointly released by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency in January, the share of South Koreans who played games over the previous year fell to 50.2 percent, its lowest level since data collection began in 2015. The figure dropped 9.7 percentage points from the previous year.Game usage had averaged around 70 percent between 2015 and 2020 before climbing to a pandemic-era peak of 74 percent in 2022. It then declined to the low 60s in 2023 before falling into the 50-percent range for the first time in 2024.Among respondents who said they no longer play games, 44 percent cited a lack of time as the top reason, followed by declining interest at 36 percent and taking up other hobbies at 34.9 percent.