Korean games market projected to hit $5 billion by 2016

A new report from DFC Intelligence suggests that the online gaming market in South Korea is going to explode over the next several years, enough to push it to over $5 billion by 2016. DFC believes Korea's games market is the "most advanced in the world."

The report says that online infrastructure within Korea is at "near optimal performance." That performance status will help the country grow annual revenues by over 9.7 percent every year, eventually hitting that $5 billion mark. This growth is remarkable, considering that in 2011 overall revenue totaled $2.7 billion.

DFC also credits a major e-sports following, national registration IDs and even cable channels dedicated to gaming as helping the market. The study notes that Korea has the highest per capita spending on PC games in the world.

The move to digital gaming is pronounced, and DFC believes that Korean publishers can expect upwards of 85 percent of their revenues to come from online gaming at home.

"Korea is an example of what happens when you give consumers access to games online," says David Cole, president of DFC Intelligence. "The rest of the world is just starting to catch-up to Korea."

While things certainly do look up for the Korean gaming market, some challenges still remain. DFC analyst Insun Yoon claims that "There is a problem with market saturation and it now takes really innovative products to stand out from the pack."