Exploring minerals in an underground world, traveling inside the human body to understand its structure, or stepping back into the Joseon Dynasty to experience historical life—these are all now possible within the world of virtual convergence services.

The 2025 Virtual Convergence Service Developer Competition has come to a close. Hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and organized by the Korea Radio Promotion Association, the Korea Metaverse Industry Association, and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, the competition brought together 695 teams and 1,541 participants over a five-month period. From elementary students to teachers, startups, and young developers, participants gathered to showcase the services of the future.

Now in its fifth year, the competition is Korea’s largest event dedicated to expanding the virtual convergence content ecosystem and discovering and nurturing outstanding talent. Participants used software authoring tools provided by domestic and global virtual convergence service companies to develop either assigned projects, based on predetermined themes, or open projects with no restrictions on topic or format—handling everything from planning to production.

This year’s event introduced several new features. To support emerging startups, corporations established within the past year were allowed to participate for the first time. In addition, the competition operated with two separate tracks: the Developer Division and the Creator Division. Major platform companies such as Roblox and Nexon Korea, operator of MapleStory Worlds, joined as sponsors for the first time. Global leaders including Meta and Unity Technologies Korea also returned as supporters for a second consecutive year, adding further weight to the event. Twenty-five experts from ten sponsoring companies provided one-on-one mentoring to 29 teams that advanced to the preliminary round.

The Grand Prize (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Award) winners shared a notable trait

Employment outcomes among award-winning teams have also begun to surface. Outstanding participants from teams such as B1G3 and Metastone have secured positions at companies including BestTech and Supercent, earning praise for establishing an industry-linked career pathway that connects education, project participation, and employment.

Hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and co-organized by the Korea Radio Promotion Association, the Korea Metaverse Industry Association, and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, the 2025 Virtual Convergence Service Developer Competition was held on the 12th at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Award recipients posed for a commemorative photo.

Source: https://www.etnews.com/20251119000372