Korean mobile games publisher Gamevil released financial numbers from 2009 yesterday, to a bit of well deserved fanfare. When compared to one year prior, Gamevil increased sales amounts by an impressive 59 percent, totaling 24.4 billion Won, or $21 million. According to company representatives, this is the first time that a Korean mobile gaming company has surpassed the 10 billion Won mark, with Gamevil’s total Net income holding firm at 11.8 billion Won ($10.2 million). Gamevil pulled down a 56 percent operating profit, and a healthy 48 percent net profit, both company records.

The majority of sales were driven by their popular titles Baseball Superstars, RPG title Zenonia, and action RPG Hybrid: Eternal Whisper. These titles are available on both standard and iPhone mobile devices. Gamevil points to not only the success of these titles, but more importantly, their microtransaction sales within these games as primary revenue drivers. However, while Gamevil has employed the microtransaction monetization module in their standard mobile phone apps, they’ve yet to make the same jump with their iPhone games. Let’s say that again – Gamevil has pulled down record profits, and is NOT garnering significant profits from iPhone based microtransactions.

“The Korean mobile gaming market is one of the most advanced in the world, driven by original titles and new business models such as micro-transactions and network games,” said Byung Joon Song, Gamevil CEO.

“We’ll do our best to continuously grow now as a global mobile gaming company by developing games optimised for the mobile platform, adopting to new platforms, and leveraging our experience and knowledge that we’ve accumulated throughout the past decade.”

“We’re especially proud of the high profit level we were able to achieve,” added chief financial officer Yong Kuk Lee.