Korea to Expand Indie Games With NC AI Partnership, Free Barco AI Credits
The Korea Mobile Game Association (KMGA) and NC AI, the artificial intelligence subsidiary of NCSoft, announced on the 11th that they have signed a collaboration agreement to advance Korea’s indie game industry. The deal aims to support domestic indie game development and boost developers’ efficiency.
Under the agreement, the two parties will actively leverage NC AI’s AI technologies and related infrastructure to aid Korean indie game development. They also plan to jointly design and operate technology seminars, education programs, and conferences.
NC AI will provide free credits for its Barco (VARCO) AI platform to KMGA member companies to experience the tool, with allocations scaled to studio size, including small studios and mid-sized developers. Any KMGA member can apply after authentication.
Lee Yeon-su, CEO of NC AI, said Barco is more than a production tool; it is helping build an AI-based development ecosystem across the mobile game production workflow. He added that an integrated infrastructure covering art, sound, voice, and localization will raise development efficiency and quality and enable more developers to practically use AI.
Hwang Seong-ik, KMGA chairman, expressed gratitude that NC AI’s AI advances can support Korea’s small indie game sector. He said NC AI is helping to create a win-win environment for large, medium, and small companies, and that the association will continue to work on narrowing the technology gap for small indie developers.
For U.S. readers, the collaboration matters because it signals how Korea is integrating AI into game development and supporting indie studios who may later partner with global publishers or leverage these tools in international markets. The program could accelerate AI-assisted production, potentially influencing development timelines, costs, and the pipeline of new mobile games entering competitive markets in the United States.
The move also highlights how major Korean game companies are expanding into AI-enabled workflows. KMGA represents Korea’s mobile game developers, while NC Soft is a leading industry publisher and developer; NC AI focuses on applying AI to game creation. The Barco/VARCO platform aims to streamline multiple stages of mobile game production, and the subsidy-like credits reduce barriers for indie studios to test AI capabilities.