[Gamasutra rounds up the week's biggest reports on South Korea's booming online games market from This Is Game, the leading English-language site about the country's game industry.]
In our latest round-up of news from South Korea's online games space, we look at a new cloud gaming service for Korea, breaches in anti-bot security, and tablet and PC editions for Tomonobu Itagaki's Devil's Third.
Dungeon&Fighter's anti-bot security compromised
Reports have emerged that Dungeon&Fighter, the Nexon-published MMORPG known as Dungeon Fighter Online in North America, suffered a security breach from April 2010 to July 2011 when an employee at developer Neople sold information regarding the game's anti-bot technology.
The worker who leaked the information received $106,140 for details on Hacktype, the game's technology for identifying and shutting down bot accounts that farmed for virtual currency. She provided a third-party virtual currency/goods company with Hacktype's update schedule and log files for over 10,000 accounts.
Neople discovered the breach after realizing that its Hacktype updates failed to eliminate the bots, and consulted investigative agency. The worker and her brother (who brokered the arrangement with the virtal currency company) were fined for the amount they received as payment, and both served a year and 10 months in prison respectively.
Combat Arms dev partners with Valhalla for Devil's Third
Doobic, the South Korean developer behind Nexon's popular free-to-play first-person shooter Combat Arms, has formed a joint venture corporation with Tomonobu Itagaki's Valhalla Game Studios called Valhalla&Doobic Co. The new operation will work on the PC and tablet versions of Valhalla's upcoming console game Devil's Third.
The two companies have also entered into a mutual technical collaboration contract meant to help expand the Devil's Third franchise by bringing the series to other digital devices and various forms of entertainment.
Korean telecom company launches cloud gaming service
Seoul-based telecom firm LG Uplus has launched C-Games, a cloud gaming platform that will serve as a local service similar to Western companies like Gaikai and OnLive. The Korea Game Developer Association has already announced that it will partner with LG Uplus to bring streaming games to the platform.
Users can access the service through their smartphones and PCs, and LG Uplus intends to eventually bring C-Games to Smart TVs this September, Google Chrome next year, and HTML5 applications eventually.
[This story was written with permission using material from ThisIsGame Global, the leading English-language site about the South Korean game industry.]
