Inside Asian Gaming

also one of the most advanced telecommunications markets in the world, with high broadband Internet penetration, generally high Internet speeds and 3G mobile communications as standard. Many MMO games are developed initially in South Korea and then licensed to neighbouring Asian countries, including China. In December 2008 C Y Foundation announced it had bought the Chinese distribution rights to a major MMO game called R.O.H.A.N.: Blood Feud. The product, originally developed in South Korea by YNK Interactive, has already been very successful in Korea, Taiwan Japan and the US, and has been ranked one of South Korea’s top ten multiplayer online games for three years in a row. The launch of the official China website for the game followed in July this year. “MMOs in China are a big part of the online entertainment industry. We’re talking celebrities, merchandising and millions of online gamers flocking to these MMO games,” says SamWoelm. Growing pie By 30th June2009, thenumber of Internet users inMainlandChina had reached 338 million—a penetration rate of 25.5% of all citizens aged six and above—according to the country’s government-funded China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). This represents a 13.4% increase (40 million people) since the start of the year, said the Center. Importantly in the context of MMO gaming, 94.3% of all China’s Internet users (320 million people) have access to broadband. Graphics-rich MMO products are dependent on broadband for smooth and clean download, upload and game playing speeds. Equally importantly from a game content developer and game platform provider’s perspective, China’s Internet users are disproportionately young compared to users of many other service industries in China. A whopping 62% of all China’s Internet users are aged ten to 29 years. Research across multiple markets repeatedly shows the young tend to have more disposable income available for entertainment than their older peers. In total, 31% of the 338 million Web users in China are described as ‘students’, with a further 24.4% defined as corporate staff or Communist Party workers. In terms of monthly income, however, China’s Internet users still have a long way to go to match the spending power of their peers in North America or Europe. According to CNNIC, only 4.9% of Chinese Internet users have amonthly incomeof RMB5,001 (US$732) or above, though the income trend is rising slowly. China also has numbers on its side in population terms, making it a highly attractive market for game content providers, licensees and platform operators. “A ‘blockbuster’ game in China is anywhere from 500,000 to a million concurrent users,” says SamWoelm. Big bucks licensing “If you look closely at the MMO business model, you see that it has very strong ‘Hollywood’ characteristics,” he suggests. “What Hollywood and MMOs have in common is they both offer fans strong entertainment values. The main difference is that Hollywood movies are more of a two-hour passive gig whereas MMOs are an immersive experience where the player has a virtual character in a fantasy world. Players can spend anywhere between one and four years in this fantasy world,” he asserts. “Like fans of Hollywood films, MMO players are always looking for the next blockbuster title. Budgets for MMO games are still a lot R.O.H.A.N Blood Feud MMO December 2009 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 23