EA's FIFA Online Sets Online Record In Korea

Electronic Arts and Korean publisher Neowiz Corporation have jointly announced that FIFA Online, a PC-specific online game title only available in Korea, saw an impressive 100,000 peak concurrent users in its opening month. The title, which is still in open beta, saw 33,000 players online at one time the first weekend it was available, as well as 50,000 in its first 11 days. In its first 23 days of availability, that number had doubled to more than 100,000 concurrent users. In addition, during the weekend of June 17-18, EA noted that the game saw 600,000 unique users in one day. These numbers beat all previous records for online games in Korea, and put the popular soccer game ahead of all other online games, including racing and fantasy titles. FIFA Online will begin commercialization with the introduction of microtransactions this July. Exclusive features to the game will include community features such as in game chatting and online persistence, including custom teams, tournament rankings, with levels and auto match-making corresponding to each user's playing ability. "We are tremendously proud of EA Sports FIFA Online. This is the launch of our online gaming strategy in Korea and we are emboldened by these phenomenal results. In its first month, the game already has terrific momentum, a passionate fan base and a very promising start. It has also been very rewarding to work with such a high caliber local partner as Neowiz," said Jon Niermann, President, EA Asia Publishing. Mr. Sung Kyun Na, President of Neowiz, said, "EA Sports FIFA Online is the first online game title in Korea, to reach such staggering success so early by surpassing 100,000 open beta users. It is also the first successful case of a converted PC packaged goods title to an online game. Both are unprecedented in online game history." He added, "Since EA Sports FIFA Online is based on a simulated game that is internationally popular and an easy-to-understand sport, we hope this wonderful result bodes well for the global game in the future."