These key findings are contained Pearl Research' s new “Online Games Market in Korea” study.
Highlights from the study:

* South Korea has one of the highest personal computer (PC) ownership rates worldwide with an 80% adoption rate.
* The top five game operators in Korea in 2008 are NHN (revenues up 51% year-over-year); Nexon; NCsoft (revenues up 5% year-over-year); Neowiz (revenues up 29% year-over-year), and CJ Internet (revenues up 21% year-over-year). The robust revenue growth for these game operators, despite an economic downturn, demonstrates the resilience of online games in Korea.
* Top online games include NCsoft' s Aion and Lineage series, CJ Internet' s Sudden Attack, EA' s FIFA Online 2, Nexon' s Dungeon and Fighter and Activision Blizzard' s World of Warcraft.
* The majority of Korea' s titles operate on a free-to-play basis, with users purchasing virtual items. Ironically, the worldwide economic downturn has not affected this business model as much, as these virtual items are small-ticket items.

While South Korea has a robust online games market, critical challenges include intense domestic competition; a government crackdown on web board games; lack of capital for smaller publishers; and rising development costs.