EA grows online gaming footprint in Asia

Asia is still the main target of online-related big players to earn revenue. The next big thing is online gaming.

Electronic Arts Inc (EA), the world’s biggest video game publisher, said yesterday it would pay about $167 million for 15 percent of The9 Ltd, a leading Chinese online game operator, to increase its stake in the Asian online gaming market.

The move follows a similar agreement EA announced in March, in which it bought a stake in Neowiz, a South Korean game company. EA teamed up with Neowiz to launch “FIFA Online” and, as part of its investment, announced plans to co-develop four additional online games with the company.

China had more than 31 million online gamers in 2006, according to IDC, an International IT research group. Meanwhile, gamers spent 6.54 billion yuan in the year, making it one of the largest online gaming markets in the world.

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