![]() But after they had a relaunch in 2014 and released a mobile game, PointBlank: Strike, Zepetto decided to close up shop on 28 June 2017.Īs far as I remember, in terms of how it looks and generally feels, I’d say it’s somewhat similar to how Counter-Strike 1.6 plays. In Southeast Asia, CrossFire had a brief “rivalry” with another free-to-play shooter called PointBlank made by Zepetto Co. At that point Forbes Asia estimated Kwon’s net worth is at $3.6 billion and launched him into the top 10 wealthiest people in South Korea to this day.Ĭrossfire then spread to many countries, not just releasing the Asia-Pacific version in 2008-2009, it also launched for North America in 2009. Smilegate’s revenue jumped to $188 million in just five years and exploded into $483 million in 2014. Thanks to massive numbers of players, the sales went through the roof. So instead of trying to fight such a strong enemy head-on in Korean and Southeast Asian markets, Smilegate turned its head - to China.Īfter releasing CrossFire in 2007 (with Neowiz as their publisher) Kwon managed to secure a deal with the then-still-growing internet giant Tencent to distribute the game in China. As an industry giant, Nexon even gained the license to produce the official free-to-play version of Counter-Strike for Asia, Counter-Strike Online. All those FPS titles were developed by Nexon, one of Smilegate’s biggest rival in the MMO industry. Around that time, the country that’s now synonymous with K-pop produced many classic MMO titles ranging from RPGs like Ragnarok Online and MapleStory, other variety of genres such as Gunbound (platformer shooter, think Worms), Pangya (golf), 02Jam and Audition Online (rhythm), GetAmped and Dungeon Fighter Online (beat-em-up), to FPSes including Sudden Attack, War Rock, and Combat Arms. And how did it get that “1 billion players” popularity? Let’s start from the beginning…ĬrossFire‘s South Korea-based developer, Smilegate, was founded in 2002 by Kwon Hyuk-Bin when South Korea’s online gaming scene was starting to boom. “ That still didn’t answer what CrossFire is, though?” you asked. Compare that to Fortnite‘s 250 million players. When you hear about “The Most Popular FPS in The World”, what game series would come into your mind Doom, Overwatch, CS:GO, Halo, or something unorthodox like Portal? Does CrossFire ring any bells? Starting today, you should remember that name, not just because CrossFire X is going to be released on Xbox Series X, but that was the game that had a total of 1 billion registered users with 6 million active players as of February 2020.
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