GStar 2008, International Game Exhibition in Korea, is held from November 13th to 16th.  This is its 4th year and includes show cases of game companies, IeSF invitational (International e-sports events), Korean Game Conferences 2008, and World Game Culture Conference 2008. More than 150 domestic and foreign enterprises, and over 3,000 possible buyers are participating GStar this year.

Last year I went to the GStar 2007 and posted my impression from GStar 2007. I thought the exhibition was biased to Korean game company and market. With this previous experience and with some additional information this year I get the feeling that GStar is still somewhat biased. Even though some global companies such as Microsoft and Intel are participating this year, no major western game company such as Blizzard or EA is present this year either. Diversity of game genres is another biased thing. Since Korean game market is mainly about online games, most of the products in this years exhibition are consequently also online games.

I’m not sure whether I will be able to attend GStar this year. However if I will have the chance to go this weekend, I will post more about the event soon.

I am not a huge fan of game though, Korea is famous for its advanced game market, especially in online game. Pearl Research, American consulting firm, forecasts the online games market in Korea will exceed $1.7 billion by 2009, driven by new releases and a fervent gaming culture.

Following chart is Top online game in Korea on October 2008.

Most of games are developed and published by Korean game company,except World of Warcraft which is developed and published by Blizzard. Among these online games, FIFA online 2, ranked as number 3, is developed by both EA(www.ea.com) and Neowiz(www.neowiz.com)

EA traditionally have made package games such as Sims, Need for speed, Battlefield, NBA, and FIFA series. To get into the online game business EA invested the Korean online game company Neowiz, currently EA is the second shareholder of Neowiz. Neowiz is Korean game company, operating online game portal Pmang(www.pmang.net),  top 3 game portal in Korea. Together with Neowiz, EA focused on getting the FIFA series into its online version.

FIFA online 1 was launched in 2006 in Korea and the year after the second version of the game, FIFA online 2, was established. FIFA online 2 is currently reaping its success in Korea  with revenue of around 2 million dollars per month.

I think FIFA online has pretty successed to enter not even Korean online game market also global online game market.  EA is trying to make FIFA online successfull at other countries too. FIFA online 2 was launched in Japan to the public on October 2008. Also FIFA online 2  is preparing to get launched in China and other markets. On November 28, FIFA online 2 will start open beta test globally (If you want to see more about FIFA online 2 open beta test, visit here)

Following video is intro for FIFA online 2, please enjoy.

As reported by  Yonhap News, Japanese video-game giant Nintendo Co. plans to finally release the “Wii” in South Korea. Trying to gain market share with respect to its competitors Sony and Microsoft, they will release the console about 1 year and a half after its initial release in the U.S. and Japan.

This clearly reveals some of the characteristics of the Korean Video Games market. Although widely know as a country on the cutting edge in terms of gaming, the Korean market is composed mainly on online gaming from pc’s and relative to the most other countries consoles are not that popular. The reasons for this are diverse, having to do with Korean infrastructure, policies and even social characteristics. With online gaming becoming more and more popular there should be increased interaction between Korean online game developers, and traditional game giants from abroad.

If you are interested in the subject, my company Veyond will soon release a Korean online gaming report, please stay tuned.