Free to play games are definitely big business in Asia with Korean free-to-play online game publisher Nexon (Maple Story, Combat Arms) releasing its financial report for 2009. Despite no purchase or subscription cost for its products, Nexon has managed to rake in 703.6 billion won in revenue, which as of publish time is equivalent to 575.54 million U.S. dollars. That’s HUGE for Free to Play game publishers.
Perhaps more important is that this number is 56% greater than Nexon’s revenue for 2008, which reflects the growing legitimacy of the free-to-play model as a feasible option for high-quality games especially in Asia as only 57 billion won (46.62 million U.S. dollars) – less than 10% of the gross – came from North America.
via IGN
