While microtransactions may still be relatively new in the US, they’ve become the defacto method of the gaming industry in the Asian market. Even less familiar to the Western market is microtransactions deriving from mobile games. And if Korean mobile publisher Gamevil’s astounding 51 percent profit margins in the mobile gaming sector are any indication, we could soon seen the same revenues posted stateside.

Pocketgamer.biz is reporting that Gamevil’s Q2 revenues have risen 67 percent year-over-year to a healthy $4.3 m. The company’s operating income is up 188 percent to $2.6 million, and net profit rising an astounding 214 percent to $2.1 m. Obviously, there’s quite a few Korean gamers that are quite familiar with the microtransaction mechanism, and are now having no problem adopting the mindset to their mobile playtime.

Looking at the quarterly numbers, Gamevil sales were up 30 percent, net profits up 55 percent, and operating income rose 74 percent. Gamevil execs point to microtransactions as being the clear bread winner. Their microtransactions focus on in-game virtual items sales, with outstanding performance coming from sports title Baseball Superstars and RPG HYBRID: Eternal Whisper.

But wait, if we’re talking mobile gaming, where’s the iPhone stats? Granted, Gamevil has released several games on the App Store, however, they’ve not yet harnessed the microtransaction reigns, as Apple does not allow for microtransactions via free apps.

“We’ll continue to grow in the later half this year with sequels of our current portfolio and new franchises released in the domestic Korean market,” said Gamevil CFO Yong Kuk Lee. “Also we’re planning to bring more new titles to the global open markets as our future growth strategy.”

These games will include iPhone versions of HYBRID: Eternal Whisper and a sequel to its popular Zenonia RPG.

Tags: Apple, baseball superstars, gamevil, HYBRID, iphone, microtransaction, mobile games, mobile gaming, Yong Kuk Lee, Zenonia

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm and is filed under industry news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.