PS2 Pulls Further Ahead In Korea

Sony officials have reported that sales of the PlayStation 2 in Korea have jumped 21% in December, compared to the same period last year. Sony Computer Entertainment Korea figures claim 50,000 consoles were sold in December, bringing the country's total installed userbase to 700,000 units – with the company aiming for one million units by the end of June. These results are further bad news for Microsoft which had targeted Korea as a key Eastern market, after effectively admitting defeat in Japan. The company had hoped to sell 150,000 Xbox consoles during its first year, but industry figures put the actual amount at just 60,000. It had been assumed that Xbox Live would be particularly well received in the country, where two thirds of Koreans subscribe to broadband Internet, but according to the latest data there were only 4,000 concurrent users for Xbox Live by the end of December and 10,000 for the PlayStation 2 by the end of September. Korea’s video game market was worth 3.8 trillion won ($3.2 billion) in 2002 and is expected to almost double to 6.2 trillion won ($5.2 billion) by 2007. Source: The Korea Herald