[Korea] 2010 Outlook: Browser-based Games

Thanks to the success of browser games likes of Tribal Wars (부족전쟁: Kor) and 7th Dragon (칠용전설: Kor) in Korea, the Korean browser-based game market is hitting its peak. More than 10 games was launched in 2009 and more games will follow the suit in 2010.

From Small to Major Publishers

From a developer's perspective, browser-based games have their certain merits; lower production costs and shorter project time are required to create games. Hence higher ROI once the game operation reaches to a certain point.

For such reason, new and small studios are eager to enters the market. According to an industry source, in general it takes about 4 experienced programmers to create a browser-based game in 4 to 6 months, 1 year tops within a 100 million Won budget (US$ 77,000).

A publisher who operates a game portal can use a browser-based games to entice casual gamers to its portal site since it's very easy to play. A game portal with high paying users claimed that ARPU jumped up after they launched a browser game.

Korean publishers preferred a Chinese game that already has been operated for some time and gained a fan base. And the willingness of Chinese games to slash their price to enter the Korean market doesn't hurt, either.

Starting with Chinese games, Korean publishers plan to learn operation know-how then expand to develop their own games with their intellectual property. 

From: Gamasutra: Simon Lim's Blog