Pearl Research recently...researched the gaming situation in South Korea, and found it will exceed $1.7 billion by next year. This, they say, is driven by "new releases and a fervent gaming culture," with a deciding factor being casual games which are free to play, easy to learn, and can be played in "micro-slices" of time, in less than ten minutes, if desired.

Below are the key findings, demonstrating a high rate of Internet connection, enthusiasm for micro-transactions, and the effectiveness of "all-in-one" gaming sites:

+ South Korea has a sophisticated information technology (IT) infrastructure with 80% of households connected to the Internet.

+ South Korea has one of the highest adoption rates of purchasing virtual items and micro-transactions. Approximately 67% of those in the 20-30 age cohort purchased online paid content. Of those who have purchased digital content, 91% purchased music while 39% purchased community and avatar items from online services.

+ A common strategy in Korea is the operation of large game portals that provide a wide selection of games, including massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), casual, and web board games all within one convenient site. Top game portals such as CJ Internet’s Netmarble, NHN’s Hangame, and Neowiz’s Pmang can attract 500,000 to 1 million unique visitors a day. More than 10 million Korean adults visit game portals every month, according to estimates by Pearl Research.
While South Korea has a robust games market, critical challenges include intense domestic competition; prevalence of “me-too” or derivative titles; challenges in expanding overseas to the US and China; and rising development costs.

The “Games Market in Korea” report provides an in-depth analysis of the Korean online games market and contains an executive summary; 2007 to 2011 forecasts for the online games platforms; inhibitors and drivers to growth; deep marketplace analysis; discussion of key market players, and strategic conclusions.