QuickStat: Korean Market Update

Market research and consulting firm Pearl Research today teased the game and virtual worlds industries with a number of data points from its recently published "Online Games Market in Korea" study. The stats are worth noting as what is popular, and who is thriving, in Korea — in the online gaming, MMOG, and virtual worlds camps — can sometimes impact the North American market. The top five game operators in Korea in 2008, according to Pearl, were NHN (with revenues up 51 percent year-over-year); NCsoft  (revenues up 5 percent year-over-year); Neowiz  (revenues up 29 percent year-over-year), CJ Internet (revenues up 21 percent year-over-year); and Nexon. The most popular online games in 2008 were NCsoft's Aion and Lineage series, CJ Internet's Sudden Attack, Electronic Arts' FIFA Online 2, Nexon's Dungeon & Fighter (coming to North America as Dungeon Fighter), and Activision Blizzard's World of Warcraft. Pearl says the overall online game market in Korea saw a 20 percent jump in revenues from 2007 to 2008.

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