Clockwise: Sudden Attack, Dungeon & Fighter, Counterstrike Online: Zombie, Freestyle

It is no news that Korea has been a market leader in production and distribution of online games. Korea’s online games are known to be highly adaptive, addictive, and profitable. With its efficient production model and long term revenue model from recurring user fees, it stands quite competitive against console games which have been the dominant game form for decades. Already vastly popular in Japan, US, China and other Asian countries, Korea’s online games have also been increasingly gaining ground in Europe and South America. Hence Korean games make up more than 50% of the total online gaming market.

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Within Korea’s online game Mecca, there are also those games that take the spotlight, those gamer’s favorites that have been ceaselessly on the top spots.
The most Popular Online games in Korea Top 10 for 2nd week of May are:
1. Sudden Attack                                      - FPS
2. Dungeon and Fighter                             - Action RPG
3. Aion: Tower of Eternity                          - MMORPG
4. World of Warcraft                                  - MMORPG
5. Maple Story                                          - MMORPG
6. Fifa Online 2                                         - e-Sports (Soccer/football)
7. Freestyle                                              - e-Sports (Basketball)
8. Lineage                                                - MMORPG
9. Counterstrike Online: Zombie Scenario   - FPS
10. Lineage 2                                           - MMORPG

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This ranking is from Game Meca  Online Games, which is based on the game awareness and game access traffic data aggregated from popular search portals, PC game room access time, online gaming traffic data, game website visitors, and Game Meca user rankings.
As you can see most of the games are categorized amongst one of three forms, FPS (First Person Shooter), MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online role play game) and e-Sports (electronic sports). It is no secret that Korea has been a leading nation of online multiplayer games, but these games have been refusing to give out their top spot for months!

MMORPG games such as Aion, WOW, Maple Story and Lineage seem to be filling up most of the spots on the list. However, maintaining the #1 slot consistently for over a year is ‘Sudden Attack’, a free-to-play multiplayer first person shooter online game. I had introduced it in as earlier article for its placement of celebrity characters such as Rain and Jessica Gomez to further promote its game attraction.

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eSports also seem to be also gaining more ground. ‘Fifa Online 2’, the online football games has always been in the leading spot, making headlines as a representative strategic collaboration between Korea’s number one game company Neowiz and the world renown software producer EA(Electronic Arts). And with the upcoming World Cup 2010, Fifa Online 2 can expect more attention to its way. However, for games such as ‘Freestyle’, the multiplayer online basketball game is one of the only games to recently make its way on to the top 10 list, going up four spots from the previous week. Also another e-Sports game, Pro Baseball Manager has made it a huge leap over eleven spots to hold its place on #12 this week.
It appears like FPS, MMORPG and e-Sports games are going to remain on the forefront of Korea’s online gaming industry, the apple of the eye for Korean gamers, and likely to continue stirring the interests of international game developers.

On the 26th April, the Culture and Tourism Minister of Korea made headlines by giving a briefing at a press conference with an iPad on the glass podium, when previously the government had announced individual purchase of iPads from overseas illegal, excluding industrial experimental use. Since then one iPad per person was legalized and this event was counted as a mild demonstrational use.
Likewise, the release of iPad has been sending waves around the world. In wide scope, iPad is particularly influencing the future of Apple, Old media industries, and consumer patterns.

With the distinguished UX that iPad provides, Steve Jobs has furthered Apple N screen strategic foothold which covers all of Apple’s product lines. This will serve as platform to further the Apple legacy in areas such as SNS, games, finance, and education.

For old media industries in newspapers, magazines, and books, the iPad brings attractive new market possibilities. Through App distribution, old media have found a new window of revenue. With iPad selling 6% more paid Apps than iPhone, and the convenience of direct connection through a touch of an App icon for consumers, old media can gain leverage against free web portal access.

Customers interest in MID(Mobile Internet Device) can also be expected to rise with the level of “Apple awareness”. Apple’s iPod, which had initially been a very niche product, has now become almost the norm. With the media buzz, iconic designs, and commercialized high end technology, Apple fish massive interests that even those non tech-savy mass would take more than a second look at the iPad.

KOREA no iPad?
However, there has been no news of iPad’s launch in Korea, a leading global test-bed for IT. Due to perhaps tight inventory and the fact that Korea is not an English-speaking country, Apple has not considered Korea an urgent target market.

Furthermore like the iPhone, there are usage barriers of iPad even if it enters Korea. Korea lacks much in Apps and content, Korean ebook market scale is less than 100,000 books. There are also matters of privacy policies, and the fact that iPad does not support Flash or Active-X which applies to a major portion of websites in Korea.

Nevertheless, there have been already numerous early adopters who have personally purchased the iPad overseas, but are not be able to have full utilization of its applications in Korea. One of our staff at work had actually brought an iPad he had purchased through a friend in the US, and half of the morning was spent gawking over its features, and its slim and light design. I guess the rest of us will just have to wait in agony.

South Korea has been fertile ground for online game developers. The country has countless internet cafes filled with gamers nationwide and even TV stations for broadcasting games. Especially since the country is also a major developer of online games itself, online games that have hit it big in South Korea have tend to do well elsewhere in the region, and has also established partnerships and investments with major foreign gaming companies.

Korea’s advanced online games have been widely successful, with primary export destinations as the United States (with Maple Story), Japan (Aion) and Taiwan (Kart Rider) with increasing market penetration and revenue coming from China, and popularity in Malaysia, Thailand, and Europe. Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia leading Korean online games company Nexon Corporation’s first release “MapleStory” (2D side-scrolling fantasy MMORPG with cartoony graphics), had exceeded three million registered users in North America, making it one of the fastest growing MMO(massive multiplayer online) games, known for its robust community and the ability to personalize game characters in endless combinations.
There have also been websites that provide popular Korean online games such as gamengame.com in English, for free.

Foreign developers have already been seeking out juicy opportunities and investment strategies with Korean developers in online gaming industry
In 2006, EA(Electronic Arts), the biggest game software producer in the world, had joint hands with Korea’s number one gaming company Neowiz and co-developed their first game, FIFA online. In an effort to enter the online gaming industry, EA has strategically sought this opportunity to learn about the Asian online game market region through Neowiz, as Korean games have already established a footing in the region. Hence, FIFA online has been one of Korea’s number one online game, and it has been further developed for consoles such as Xbox due to its popularity. Other joint developments included NBA Street Online and Battlefield online.

Though game users in many other countries have been more friendly with console games to online game, with the worldwide proliferation of broadband internet access and the rapid growth of internet users, brings positive prospect to the future of Korea’s online gaming industry. It seems that there is much room for further expansion and development in this massive multiplayer industry, meaning Korea’s online games are the thing to look out for!