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Worlds in Motion has continued to announce some of the highlights of the upcoming Austin Game Developer's Conference. We've previously talked about featured speakers like Nexon's Min Kim, and interesting events showcasing the collaboration between casual gaming and MMOs. These newest events continue to explore some topics we've returned to several times before here at Massively. The business side of massive gaming, for example, will be explored in a panel entitled Evolving Business for MMOs. Speakers will include Turbine Business Development VP Robert Ferrari, CCP CEO Himlar Veigar Pertursson, Funcom Business Development VP Nicolay Nickelsen, Nexon America director Min Kim, and ImaginVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan.

Other talks will include tips for the changing face of MMO business models, focusing on free-to-play and RMT models. Another will discuss some of the challenges of running a Beta test, with hands-on knowledge from Keneva's Jonathan Hanna. Check out the full listing of MMO-related talks and panels over at the official AGDC website today.

The development team working on Sugar Rush is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment. Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

It will be interesting to see how Sugar Rush does in North America. MapleStory is unquestionably highly successful. It put Nexon on the global radar and shocked the naysayers when MapleStory earned 29 million dollars in revenue -- not bad for a free to play MMOG! The whole western and eastern MMOG market juxtaposition is fascinating; many have shunned a lot of eastern games in discussing the western market and vice-versa. A video from the closed beta showcasing game play is after the jump. Let us know what you think.

This year's Austin Game Developer's Conference, slated for early September, sounds like it will be a good one. Though the ION 2008 event was a fantastic MMO-focused design and development thinktank, AGDC traditionally fills that roll. CMP (the event's organizer) has announced some of the speakers that will be participating in the event. The list includes industry heavyweights like Nexon America's Min Kim, BioWare's Damion Schubert, and Cryptic's Gordon Wei.

We're particularly interested in Mr. Schubert's talk. Last year his Zen of Online Game Design discussion was one of the highlights of the conference, and his discussion for this year sounds equally engaging. Entitled "Endgame: How to Build High-End Gameplay for Your Most Devoted Players", it would seem to be tackling one of the issues that a lot of MMO players find very pressing. Make sure to check out the descriptions of the events, and if you're thinking of going make sure to register soon. Early registration is only open through the end of July. And, of course, you can look forward to extensive coverage from Massively.com; we'll be at the event in force!

In a recent interview at Ten Ton Hammer, Nexon America's Min Kim spoke out about some of the company's plans for upcoming games, including their online FPS entitled Combat Arms which will be entering closed beta next week. He also talks a bit about another upcoming MMO title being produced by their Vancouver studio, but details are still not available.

In addition, Min Kim speaks at great length about some of the existing titles they have have available in Korea, that they're hoping to port to the North American audience, including the wildly-popular Korean title KartRider. To garner interest with North American players, Min Kim realizes that the audiences are different, and social competition is where it's at. No other information was said about KartRider's introduction to North America, but he says more details will be available soon.

Update: Though we initially listed both Audition and KartRider as games Nexon was looking to bring to North America, Audition has been available to North American audiences for some time now, complete with a catalog of familiar songs!

Today Gamasutra has up a massive interview with Min Kim, public face for the Korean gaming powerhouse Nexon. Kim has spoken on numerous occasions at various industry events on overcoming challenges for free to play gaming. Those challenges have translated into huge opportunities, with games like MapleStory, Kart Rider, Mabinogi, and Audition earning Nexon big money. According to Kim, the microtransaction business model the company uses across its titles is responsible for that success. Many other MMO developers have attempted to emulate that success, but their entrenched position 'since the late 90s', has made that difficult.

Some of Kim's most interesting statements surround their interactions with brick-and-mortar retail outlets. "We didn't really take off until we got the cards into Target and Best Buy and 7-Eleven. Over 50 percent of our player base doesn't have access to plastic, between 13 and 17. They just couldn't pay, so we'd effectively lose more than half our business. So that payment side is, I think, one of the biggest battles that people will fight." He goes on to discuss the possibility of Nexon games on the Xbox 360, the role of games in South Korea, and the misconceptions Western developers have when entering the free-to-play marketplace.

The Future of MMOs

The Future of MMOs panel liveblog

Team Massively was there to live blog one of the most anticipated panels of GDC08. On it were a few names you might have heard of, like Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert, Nexon's Min Kim, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, and Rob Pardo (who has apparently worked on some sort of popular fantasy game). We blogged a blow-by-blow account of the jabs, cuts, and parries from these Massive genre heavyweights.

Today at GDC Massively is liveblogging a sort of 'MMO Keynote', a panel entitled simply "The Future of MMOs". A simple title, perhaps, but probably the most anticipated event for Massive game designers and fans alike. On it are a few names you might have heard of, like Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert, Nexon's Min Kim, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, and Rob Pardo (who has apparently worked on some sort of popular fantasy game). Moderated by MMORPG.com's Jon Woods, it's sure to offer some insights into the games of tomorrow.

Below the cut is our blow-by-blow account of the jabs, cuts, and parries from these Massive genre heavyweights. The last time I saw a get-together like this was at the Austin Game Conference, and the result was a spectacular confrontation. If ... you know ... you like MMOs. Otherwise it's a bunch of guys talking generalities about "those addictive games".

If the idea of the mind behind World of Warcraft talking about the games that he loves, along with observations from one of the founders of BioWare, combined with the insights of a tabletop gaming champion and a pioneer of Korean gaming doesn't interest you ... why are you here?

Read on!

Microtransactions aren't very well understood in the US, and so that was a big part of the massive subject that Nexon America's Min Kim delved into this morning at the Worlds in Motion conference. Beginning with a rundown on Nexon's ramp up to the RMT-based juggernaut it is today, he went into a great deal of detail about the tiny transactions that have built an industry (almost) overnight.

The rest of his talk centered on Nexon'f foray into the United States. If you've been wondering about those MapleStory commercials, the cards at Target and 7-11, or all that adorable art - Nexon is the source. Read on for a discussion of how a foreign title built in South Korea can become so integrated with our own culture that they can offer up a Vegas-style wedding ceremony.

Hail to the king.

This past week's DICE event had several head-to-head events pitting warring concepts in the gaming industry against each other. The ongoing struggle between subscription fees and RMT/microtransactional business models was represented at the event by an excellent debate. And topical, considering that it appears questions over the business model may have in some way scuttled the Marvel comics MMO.

On the side of retail/subscriptions was Kelly Flock, a veteran of THQ and Sony. Min Kim, the director of operations for Nexon America, carried the banner for microtransactions. Most of their sparring centered over the economic benefits both sides offer. Kim focused on the cheap production costs of free-to-play games, as well as the appeal to casual gamers. "Once people start playing games for free, I don't know why they're going to start paying for one.", he said. Flock, meanwhile, offered evidence of a strong retail market and possible customer mindset problems in the US.

Both of them had some compelling things to say on the subject, but it seems from the writeup that Kim and RMT won the day. A sign of the times?