2004 Web and Downloadable Games White Paper 

IGDA Online Games SIG 

With the exception of Google and eBay, all of the above portals already offer game content, which makes 

them a great target for game developers. While in the US, the major six game portals (AOL, MSN Zone, 

Pogo, RealArcade, Shockwave.com, and Yahoo!), are well established and have been around for several 

years, the top portals in Europe are just now increasing their focus to paid game content. Most sites have 

previously featured web based games, but paid downloadable content appears to be the new attraction in 

Europe. 

2. 

Asian Analysis 

While China and Japan have demonstrated strong adoption rates and market penetration of broadband, 

both markets are predicted to trail overall user consumption compared to South Korea, where online 

gaming dominates the amount of time spent online per user. Though the early market has been 

dominated by MMPs, in 2003 mass market casual gaming gained steam with item and avatar related 

commerce business models, bringing to the fore several major game players in Korea such as NHN, 

Neowiz and Netmarble which specialize in casual gaming, focused on a wide range of ages. 

China holds strong promise as an online gaming market given its strong similarities to the South Korean 

market   popularity of PC cafes, popularity of online gaming content and lack of penetration by console 

players. Microsoft and Sony both have hesitated to enter the Chinese market with their console products 

largely due to piracy fears, though Nintendo has announced a console entry with a China only product 

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