14 DAY TRIAL // FIFA Online 2, a online game that has been developed jointly by EA Sports and Neowiz, has managed to get 220,000 players engaged at the same time in South Korea in July, with the South African World Cup serving as a backdrop.
The player figure comes from a financial report offered by Neowiz, the South Korean company that operates the game. The company is saying that FIFA Online 2 managed to bring in more than 5 billion Won during the month of June, which is the equivalent of 4.2 million dollars.
During June FIFA Online 2 managed to attract about 130,000 players at the same time and Neowiz is saying that the online football video game manages to earn about 50 million dollars during an entire year.
The company has said that it expects the jointly developed title to perform even better in the second half of the year, with the return of European championships boosting interest.
Recently a report from Pearl Research mentioned that the online game market in 2011 could reach 2 billion dollars, with a big share of this pie going to locally developed titles.
FIFA Online 2 is free to play and the game earns money through micro transactions, using a business model that is working very well through out South East Asia.
The online football video game was launched in 2006 by publisher Electronic Arts with the main given reason being the high rates of piracy in the area, which meant that boxed versions of FIFA titles sold poorly.
Publisher Electronic Arts must be pleased to see that free to play, micro transaction powered games can turn in a profit.
The model could be used by online games launched by PlayFish, a company that has been bought by EA for 400 million dollars last year.
A FIFA Online football simulation game that will also be free to play is in open beta on the Western market at the moment.