PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
The online games market in South Korea will reach over $2 billion in 2011, analysts claim.
According to Pearl Research, which has just released its new ‘Online Games Market in Korea’ study, this year’s World Cup helped push EA’s FIFA Online 2 temporarily to the top online game ranking at internet cafes.
Other top online games in Korea include NCsoft’s Aion and Lineage series, CJ Internet’s Sudden Attack, Nexon’s Dungeon and Fighter and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
South Korea has one of the highest internet and PC usage rates in the world, at 80 per cent. However, challenges to the online games market include an excess of available content, government scrutiny and rising development costs.
Last month, Blizzard teamed up with Korean Airlines to brand the airline’s planes with a StarCraft II motif ahead of the big launch on 27 July. The original StarCraft continues to be one of the country’s most popular games and Pearl believes that the release of the sequel, along with other high-profile titles, will contribute to an expansion of the Korean games market this year.
