{"id":44268,"date":"2026-06-07T10:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/44268\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T10:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T10:03:11","slug":"from-nvidia-to-microsoft-google-and-samsung-k-games-become-big-tech-testbed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/44268\/","title":{"rendered":"From Nvidia to Microsoft, Google and Samsung: K-Games Become Big Tech Testbed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NvidiaNvidia CEO Jensen Huang, together with NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin, talks with gamers at a Portal PC bang in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 7th. Yonhap News<\/p>\n

Global big tech firms including Nvidia, Microsoft, Google and Samsung Electronics are using Korean game companies not merely as customers but as “laboratories” for next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) technology. As games emerge as the optimal testbed for verifying AI agents, digital twins, extended reality (XR) and physical AI in the era of generative AI, Korean game companies are being reevaluated as key cooperation partners for global big tech.<\/p>\n

This shift was also detected in the activities of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who is visiting Korea. On Sunday, he met successively with Krafton (259960.KS) Chairman Chang Byung-gyu and NCsoft CEO Kim Taek-jin at a PC cafe near Sinnonhyeon Station in Seoul’s Gangnam district, expressing particular interest in the game industry.<\/p>\n

While last year’s so-called “Gganbu meeting” focused on building AI infrastructure and graphics processing unit (GPU) supply chains, this visit saw him devote effort to expanding the contact points between the game industry and AI, including three visits to PC cafes as well as meetings with executives of domestic game companies. In his meetings with Krafton and NCsoft, Huang said, “Nvidia has grown together with you,” emphasizing that Korea’s game companies were the starting point of Nvidia’s growth and a key pillar of its future AI strategy. He also told CEO Kim Taek-jin metaphorically, “You are my wingman,” suggesting that domestic game companies have played a key partner role in Nvidia’s growth process.<\/p>\n

\"NvidiaNvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right) and NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin talk with gamers at a Portal PC bang in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 7th. Photo courtesy of NCSoft\"ImageImage of NCSoft’s Cinder City. Photo courtesy of NCSoft<\/p>\n

Indeed, global big tech firms such as Nvidia have recently come to view the game industry as a proving ground for next-generation AI technology. This is because domestic game companies, with their experience operating large-scale concurrent-access environments and their capabilities in virtual worlds, real-time simulation and AI character implementation, are emerging as the optimal partners for verifying next-generation technologies such as AI agents, digital twins and physical AI.<\/p>\n

In Nvidia’s case, it has separately requested demonstrations of NCsoft’s new shooting MMO title “Cinder City” at global events such as the “Nvidia GeForce Gamer Festival” and Germany’s “Gamescom.” This is because Cinder City was selected as the flagship lineup that would most effectively showcase the performance of Nvidia’s RTX and latest Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology. The next-generation DLSS technology, which Huang recently emphasized as “the most important innovation in the graphics field,” is being applied to Cinder City and another NCsoft blockbuster, “Aion2,” for technology verification.<\/p>\n

\"NvidiaNvidia CEO Jensen Huang (right), together with Krafton Chairman Chang Byung-gyu, holds up an RTX Spark PC to be gifted to Krafton users at a PC bang in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 7th. Reporter Cho Tae-hyung<\/p>\n

Krafton also presented the direction of future games by unveiling a generative AI-based cooperative player character (CPC) with Nvidia. It is AI agent technology that converses naturally with users and plays alongside them. After implementing this as the “Smart Joy” feature in its life simulation game “inZOI,” Krafton will unveil “PUBG Ally,” an AI agent co-developed with Nvidia, as a beta service in PUBG Arcade this year. Wemade Next is also developing an AI boss monster for “Mir5” that learns users’ attack patterns in real time and changes tactics using Nvidia’s digital human technology (ACE), with K-games serving as an outpost for Nvidia AI.<\/p>\n

Google, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics are also expanding their points of contact with domestic game companies.<\/p>\n

Google has made K-games’ vast data processing capabilities a stage for advancing its own AI solutions. Netmarble (251270.KS) adopted the Google Cloud AI platform for its proprietary intelligent operation systems, the “Columbus” and “Magellan” projects. It has completed global verification of live game operation AI that analyzes the behavioral data of tens of millions of users in real time using Google’s machine learning engine to predict signs of churn in advance, and detects and blocks illegal programs (hacks) and workshop bots in real time. Com2uS (078340.KQ) also fully migrated the infrastructure of its entire “Summoners War” IP product lineup to Google Cloud and adopted Google’s “Compute Engine” and “Cloud Load Balancing” technologies, performing a structural testbed role in minimizing cross-border access latency to the extreme.<\/p>\n

Microsoft signed a technology cooperation agreement with NCsoft and adopted its cloud platform “Azure” and “Azure OpenAI” technology in the development of Cinder City. Through this, it is precisely verifying global user content recommendation and real-time server load balancing technology. Korea Microsoft CEO Cho Won-woo said, “Through our collaboration with NCsoft, we will together open a new horizon for AI-based game development,” adding, “We will support its global leap in many ways.”<\/p>\n

Samsung Electronics also optimized the new title “The First Berserker: Khazan” for its next-generation glasses-free three-dimensional (3D) monitor “Odyssey 3D” with Nexon and Neople. This was to verify image quality technology that maximizes a sense of depth and action without glasses. For Nexon Games’ (225570.KQ) “The First Descendant,” it applied and commercialized its proprietary image quality standard “HDR10+ Gaming” technology for the first time in the world, and Pearl Abyss’s “Crimson Desert” has also adopted this technology and continued its verification.<\/p>\n

“Games are an industry that implements the virtual world closest to reality,” an industry official said. “In the AI era, game companies are highly likely to establish themselves as key platforms for verifying next-generation technology, going beyond being mere content companies.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some analysts say there is an intention to strengthen internal cohesion behind Huang’s pro-game activities. By expressing a message of respect to the business division dedicated to game-related GPUs such as the GeForce series, which once supported the company’s revenue but now holds a diminished position, he aims to boost the morale of organization members.<\/p>\n

While Nvidia’s main products now are data center GPUs such as the Hopper and Blackwell series, in the 2000s and 2010s the products that made remarkable contributions to Nvidia’s revenue were graphics cards for gaming. However, according to Nvidia’s disclosures, gaming-related product revenue, which was 58.8% in 2017, shrank to 8.7% last year.<\/p>\n

After arriving in Korea on Friday, his first item on the agenda was a visit to a PC cafe operated by e-sports team T1. Meeting with this newspaper that day, he said, “PC games are the cradle of Nvidia,” declaring, “I will consider going to a PC cafe whenever I come to Korea.” He also emphasized the GeForce series, including by gifting gamers Nvidia’s latest GPU, the RTX 5090, at his meetings with Krafton and NCsoft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, together with NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin, talks with gamers at a Portal PC bang…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[26433,26431,26432,26430,4693,23677,26429,127,276],"class_list":["post-44268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-samsung-electronics","tag-ai-agents-gaming","tag-big-tech-game-cooperation","tag-dlss-technology","tag-k-games-ai-testbed","tag-krafton","tag-ncsoft","tag-nvidia-jensen-huang-korea","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-electronics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}