Next year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of South Korea will spend 67.9 billion rubles, or about $52.5 million, on subsidies to Korean gaming companies. This is reported by the GameMeca portal.
Compared to 2023, the budget of the program to support the gaming industry increased by ₩1.9 billion ($1.4 million). Most of the money will go to finance game development — ₩24.2 billion ($18.7 million). The ministry will spend another 13.3 billion ($10.27 million) to help small and medium-sized studios promote games outside South Korea. According to GameMeca, this cost column increased by 60% over the year — in 2023, 8.3 billion ($6.4 million) were pledged to help promote games abroad.
It is also known that out of ₩67.9 billion, the ministry allocated ₩5.4 billion ($4.2 million) to the state organization Game Talent Institute.
Until last year, South Korea did not officially recognize the gaming industry as a sphere related to culture and art. In September 2022, 50 years after the adoption of the law on the development of culture and art in the country, the document was amended. According to the author of the amendment and a member of the National Assembly of South Korea, Jo Seoung-lae, as of 2022, video games accounted for more than half of the country's exported content.