Xsolla Expands Leadership in Game Development and Innovation in APAC With New Strategic Partnerships With Busan City and BDAN

BUSAN, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 19, 2024--

Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, Busan Metropolitan City, and Busan Digital Asset Nexus Co., Ltd. (BDAN) have signed a significant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to position Busan as a global hub for game development and technological innovation. The agreement solidifies plans to establish Xsolla’s Asia-Pacific (APAC) headquarters in Busan, launch a cutting-edge talent development center for game developers, and explore advancements in Web3 technologies to drive regional economic and digital growth.

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The signing ceremony occurred at Busan Metropolitan City Hall, with key representatives including Busan Mayor Park Hyung-Joon, Rytis Joseph Jan, SVP of Global Strategic Partnerships at Xsolla, and Kim Sang-min, CEO of BDAN. Together, the three parties pledged their dedication to fostering innovation, creating opportunities for local talent, and building Busan’s reputation as a leader in the gaming and digital industries.

“This partnership is a testament to Busan’s incredible potential as a center for gaming and technology,” said Rytis Joseph Jan, SVP of Global Strategic Partnerships at Xsolla. “By collaborating with BDAN and Busan City, we aim to create opportunities for local talent and businesses while contributing to the economic and technological growth of the region.”

A core initiative explored through this partnership is establishing the Xsolla APAC headquarters in Busan. This will bring new employment opportunities to the region and enhance collaboration with local and international partners. The headquarters will serve as a hub for game commerce activities, contributing to Busan’s vision of becoming a global gaming and digital innovation leader.

In line with this collaboration, Xsolla and BDAN are creating a talent development center to foster local game development talent. The center will act as an incubator and accelerator program to empower local game developers and entrepreneurs. In addition, Xsolla and BDAN will provide mentorship, resources, and funding-related opportunities to enable creators to thrive in an increasingly competitive market and help establish Busan as a center for innovation in the gaming sector.

“This partnership demonstrates Busan’s potential to become a global leader in the gaming and digital industries,” said Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon. “We look forward to collaborating with Xsolla and BDAN to strengthen our city’s digital competitiveness and foster new economic opportunities.”

“The vision we discussed with Xsolla earlier this year is becoming a reality,” said Kim Sang-min, CEO of BDAN. “Together, we will help Busan become a digital finance hub and a global blockchain city, fostering new opportunities in gaming and beyond. BDAN is committed to fulfilling its social responsibilities by leading the digital industry and urban innovation in Busan.”

The collaboration sets the stage for additional initiatives, including attracting global companies, supporting local businesses, and developing pilot programs in emerging technologies. This partnership reflects a shared vision to position Busan as a global destination for game development and a key player in the digital economy.

Learn more about how Xsolla, Busan City, and BDAN are shaping the future of game development and innovation by visiting: xsolla.blog/busan

About Xsolla

Xsolla is a global video game commerce company with a robust and powerful set of tools and services designed specifically for the industry. Since its founding in 2005, Xsolla has helped thousands of game developers and publishers of all sizes fund, market, launch, and monetize their games globally and across multiple platforms. As an innovative leader in game commerce, Xsolla’s mission is to solve the inherent complexities of global distribution, marketing, and monetization to help our partners reach more geographies, generate more revenue, and create relationships with gamers worldwide. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, with offices in London, Berlin, Seoul, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Raleigh, Tokyo, Montreal, and cities around the world, Xsolla supports leading gaming partners such as Valve, Twitch, Epic Games, Take-Two, KRAFTON, Nexters, NetEase, Playstudios, Playrix, miHoYo, among others.

For additional information and to learn more, please visitxsolla.com

About Busan City

Busan is the southernmost global maritime city on the Korean Peninsula and the second-largest city in South Korea, after the world-class metropolis of Seoul. Its many beaches are brimming with youth and vibrancy, while its ports and wharves are filled with massive containers and goods for import and export. The streets and venues are alive with the aroma of culture and art. Busan is also a treasure trove of sustainable geological heritage and a hub for global climate change action, home to the APEC Climate Center. Futuristic skyscrapers are transforming the skyline in neighborhoods like Haeundae and Gwangalli, while romantic festivals—such as international film festivals and fireworks displays—are held throughout the year.

About BDAN

Busan Digital Asset Nexus (BDAN) is a fourth-generation decentralized Busan Digital Asset Nexus specializing in Real-World Assets (RWA). It is the first domestic Busan Digital Asset Nexus to sign an agreement with a local government and is rapidly growing as a result of this partnership. BDAN is also the core company in South Korea's only blockchain special zone and serves as the anchor company of the Opportunity Development Zone, playing a leading role in transforming Busan into a global hub for digital finance and blockchain technology. BDAN was selected through a business operator solicitation conducted by Busan Metropolitan City in the second half of 2023 and was officially established in the first half of 2024. The founding shareholders include Barunson, the production company behind the Academy Award-winning film Parasite; Ocon, the producer of South Korea's top character animation Pororo; Maeil Business Newspaper, South Korea’s leading economic newspaper; Hana Bank and Hana Securities, two of the country’s top five financial institutions; and IT Cen, a major player in South Korea’s public IT infrastructure, among others. Together, these 11 institutions invested a total of 10 billion Korean won. In October 2024, BDAN announced the acquisition of the RWA platform Sengold, which has already secured 1.18 million customers.

(Photo: Xsolla)

(Photo: Xsolla)

(Graphic: Xsolla)

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) — An Indian migrant who survived a deadly trek across the Canada-U.S. border in blizzard conditions is expected to testify Tuesday in the federal trial of two men accused of taking part in a sprawling human smuggling scheme that ultimately killed a family of four.

Prosecutors allege Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, and Steve Shand, 50, put financial profit over human life when they attempted to smuggle Indian migrants across the border into Minnesota over a five-week period. They say Patel ran part of the smuggling scheme and recruited Shand as a driver. Both men have pleaded not guilty to four federal counts related to human smuggling.

Prosecutors say the family of four — 39-year-old Jagdish Patel; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik — froze to death Jan. 19, 2022, after spending hours wandering in heavy snow and bone-chilling cold. Shand had been waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the family from Gujarat state, as the wind chill reached minus 36 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 38 degrees Celsius).

The witness expected to testify Tuesday, Yash Patel, is one of two people who managed to reach Shand on the other side of the border. He was arrested along with Shand after a border patrol officer pulled them over before they could escape, prosecutors said.

Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel.

Prosecutors began building their case Tuesday by calling witnesses who spoke of the brutal conditions under which the Patel family trudged through vast, snow-filled fields and high winds.

Daryl Ritchison, a climatologist and director of the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network, said temperatures were abnormally cold that January morning and that frostbite can occur within 10 minutes in those conditions.

Troy Larson, a mechanic, said he helped dig a van belonging to a man matching Shand’s description out of a ditch on the side of a desolate stretch of road that morning. Larson described the area as an arctic tundra. Inside the van allegedly driven by Shand, Larson said he observed a person wrapped in a blanket and a child. The van was pulled over by a border patrol agent a short time later and Shand was arrested.

Shand and Harshkumar Patel knew the winter weather conditions were extreme but chose to go forward with a plan to smuggle migrants across the border on foot anyway, prosecutor Ryan Lipes said Monday in his opening statement.

"The migrants were dropped at a dark, isolated part of the Canadian border nowhere near a legal port of entry,” Lipes said.

When Jagdish Patel's body was found, he was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket, prosecutors added.

“This case is about these two men putting profit over people’s lives, profit they earned by smuggling migrants from India across the Canadian border into the U.S.,” Lipes told the jury.

Attorney Thomas Leinenweber said his client, Harshkumar Patel, should never have been charged. Leinenweber said in his opening statement that no one would testify Patel ever talked about a smuggling conspiracy or provided visual evidence of his involvement.

"One of the worst feelings universally that anyone could feel is when you are wrongfully accused,” Leinenweber said.

Shand's attorney, Lisa Lopez, asked the jury to differentiate between the two defendants. She said Shand was an unwitting participant in the smuggling ring.

“Mr. Shand was used by Mr. Patel. And being used does not equate under the law to being guilty of conspiracy,” Lopez said.

Lopez said Shand and the migrants were duped by Patel and the smuggling network. On Tuesday, Leinenweber argued Shand’s defense is antagonistic and prejudicial against his client.

A jury of eight men and six women, including two alternates, was seated Monday afternoon.

Prosecutors plan to show jurors photos of the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel and his family. The judge allowed the images to remain as evidence over objections from defense attorneys, one of whom argued the photos could cause “extreme prejudice to the jury.”

Federal prosecutors say Harshkumar Patel and Shand were part of an international criminal network that scouted for clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the U.S., mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.

Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.

The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates more than 725,000 Indians were living illegally in the U.S., behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.

Prosecutors filed court documents showing Harshkumar Patel was in the U.S. illegally after being refused a visa at least five times and that he recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Over five weeks, court documents show, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of the border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was “cold as hell” while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say.

“They going to be alive when they get here?” he allegedly wrote.

During the last trip in January, prosecutors say Shand had messaged Patel, saying: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please."

Women walks past an entrance gate of Dingucha village in Gandhinagar, India, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

FILE - A border marker, between the United States and Canada is shown just outside of Emerson, Manitoba, on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

In an image released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, shows how the migrants who survived the crossing were terribly inadequately dressed. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)

In an undated image released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, shows items found in a migrant child’s backpack. (U.S. Attorney's Office via AP)

The Edward J. Devitt U.S. Courthouse and Federal building is seen, where two men on trial face human smuggling charges, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Fergus Falls, Minn. (AP Photo/Michael Goldberg)

FILE - Road signage is posted just outside of Emerson, Manitoba on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (John Woods/The Canadian Press via AP)