EA gets more massive in Korea
Megapublisher's purchase of free-to-play developer J2M will yield MMOGs based on existing and new IPs.
After years of being content with the aging Ultima Online and (later) Dark Age of Camelot, Electronic Arts is ramping up its massively multiplayer efforts. Less than a month after it launched Warhammer Online--which now boasts over 750,000 subscribers--the publisher's BioWare studio joined LucasArts to reveal the long-rumored sci-fi project, Star Wars: The Old Republic.
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This week, EA made another move into the MMORPG area by acquiring yet another developer. Late Monday, the Redwood City-based publisher announced it had purchased the Seoul, South Korea-based shop J2MSoft Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but J2M's company overview says it employs 50 full-time staffers and has $1 million in equity. It was founded in December 2004.
J2M--which stands for Journey 2 Media--specializes in free-to-play MMOGs for the Korean PC market. These included the currently offline online racer RayCity and two titles still in beta testing: "turn-based shooter" Taan and "multiplayer rhythm action" title Debut.
As for J2M's future projects, EA Asia president Jon Niermann said only it would be working on "online games based on new properties and powerful EA franchises." However, its purchase is just the latest move in EA's expansion into the lucrative Asian MMO market. In March 2007, EA bought a 19 percent stake in Neowiz, the Korean publisher of RayCity, for around $105 million. This past January, South Korean news outlet Chosun reported that the publisher would invest around $21 million in a Seoul branch headed by former FIFA producer Danny Isaac.
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