China's Online Games Gaining on Korea's

From Asia Times Online: China's online games gaining on Korea's

"South Korean game companies are struggling to retain their dominant position in the Chinese online gaming market as they slowly give ground to local game makers, industry sources said recently."

"According to KGDI, a computer game affiliate of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, only two South Korean games - BnB from Nexon Co and Lineage II from NCsoft Corp - were successful in entering the top five popular online games in China in May. Meanwhile, US publisher Blizzard Entertainment and local Chinese game producer WangYi clinched the first and second spot, respectively, on the popularity chart, which used to be the domain of South Korean games."

"While China's homemade products are seemingly putting on a stellar performance in China, South Korean game companies seem to be fighting a desperate battle against their new rivals. South Korea's share of the Chinese on-line game market, where it had a total of 154 products on offer as of December 2004, has reportedly decreased to the 30-percent level from a dominant 51.4% just a few months ago, according to industry sources and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism."

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