A critical thinker might question whether this is a premium showcase venue designed to frame the idea that a modern, advanced gaming culture exists in North Korea. Actually, tech-Twitterer Iniysa reckons that the swish new PC bang is located in “a newly built city in Pyongyang, and only the top elites selected by the state, such as those recognized by Kim Jong-un and nuclear test scientists, are allowed to live there.”
Also, while one might expect North Korean PC gamers to live by Chinese tech hand-me-downs, Iniysa is openly surprised to see premium Asus ROG-branded gear at this Pyongyang PC bang.
Images of what appears to be the net café games UI are also somewhat eyebrow-raising. The machine translation of the grid-layout game launcher banner is ‘Mars Computer Arcade’, which we haven’t heard of before. However, it features many AAA and eSports titles that are popular on the other side of the DMZ.
Without much pixel peeping, we can see the iconic covers of games from franchises like FIFA, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Crysis, Far Cry, and others. Iniysa chirps up to suggest that, while these games may be accessible in the Pyongyang PC bang, they will most likely be restricted to local – probably internal – networks. Thus, the North Korean bamboo curtain persists, even in the gaming sphere.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/new-pc-gaming-cafe-photographed-in-north-korea-rare-pictures-of-pyongyang-pc-bang-gaming-above-the-38th-parallel#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
- Nexperia allowed to resume exports from China following Trump-Xi talks — companies may seek exemptions from the Ministry of Commerce to restart international de
- NVIDIA Launches Open Models and Data to Accelerate AI Innovation Across Language, Biology and Robotics
- AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D vs Intel Core i9-14900K Faceoff — Intel's old-school flagship chip versus AMD's bleeding-edge tech
- Join the Resistance: ‘ARC Raiders’ Launches in the Cloud
- Early Black Friday PC and hardware deals — sales and deals on components, accessories, and 3D printers already live
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.