Korean apps gain attention at Apple’s WWDC event

[Courtesy of AmazeVR]

South Korean companies AmazeVR Inc. and Neowiz Corp. were under the spotlight during Apple Inc’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held in Cupertino, the United States. AmazeVR creates virtual reality (VR) content and distribution platforms using Apple’s mixed reality headset Vision Pro, while Neowiz achieved success by releasing the globally successful Korean game, “Lies of P” for Mac.

“Currently, artists find it difficult to make money in the music market like Spotify,” AmazeVR chief executive officer Lee Seung-joon said. “Creating VR concerts with AmazeVR allows artists to earn additional revenue alongside their live music and concert events.”

Top American artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Zara Larsson, and T-Pain have created VR concerts with AmazeVR, which are viewable on the Vision Pro AmazeVR concert application.

AmazeVR has also filmed concert videos with K-pop artists including female idol group Aespa and male artist KAI from EXO, which were then screened in theaters. K-pop artist videos will also be available on the Vision Pro app in the latter half of 2024, and the price to download a single artist’s concert is about $13.

“If devices like the Apple Vision Pro become as common as TVs in households, we hope to establish a model where artists release new music and music videos alongside AmazeVR concerts,” Lee said. He added that while AmazeVR is currently creating artist content directly, its long-term goal is to become a platform that distributes the content.

AmazeVR services its content on the Meta Quest Store, a major platform for one of the leading extended reality devices, Meta Quest. Founded in 2015 by former Kakao employees in the United States, AmazeVR is headquartered in Los Angeles with a branch office in Korea.

For its part, Neowiz’s Lies of P won the Visual and Graphic category at the Apple Design Awards held at WWDC. This is the game’s second accolade, following its designation as Mac Game of the Year at Apple’s App Awards in December 2023.

“While preparing Lies of P for consoles and PC, Apple approached us about developing a Mac version,” Neowiz head director Choi Ji-won said.

Although Macs have traditionally not been used much for gaming, Apple has recently been creating and integrating high-performance CPUs for Macs, leading to game releases that are optimized for these processors.

When asked whether Korean game developers should necessarily create Mac versions, Choi said that “it does not mean we must make Mac versions. But in times like these, when the cost of developing games continues to increase, it is advisable to release them on as many platforms as possible.”