Operators Look To Capture Turkey's Growing Online Games Market
With the third most engaged Internet audience in the world (according to ComScore), following right behind Canada and the U.S., Turkey is enjoying rapid growth with nearly every aspect of its online games industry, including MMOs, virtual worlds, and social games.
Consulting agency Ico Partners, which spoke at a recent online games summit in Ankara, says that with more online gaming companies turning their eyes to Europe (due to its less mature market, and China's market seeming increasingly closed), the country seems like a "rising star" in the region.
MMO companies like Joymax, K2 Networks, and Gameforge have already laid their stake in the emerging market. Ico estimates that K2's Knight Online earns as much as $1 million per month from its Turkish operations, and that Gameforge's Metin2 attracts some three million active users in the country.
Other companies like Korean publisher NHN (Huxley, S.U.N.) have noticed the opportunity and are reportedly localizing their MMORPGs for Turkey. Local operators such as GameSultan and GGC have also popped up to handle distribution, payment systems, and localization for foreign titles.
Social and browser-based games are also increasing in popularity, partially due to Facebook claiming over 14 million Turkish members, making the country the third largest on the platform. 53 percent of Turkey's Internet population is on Facebook, according to the firm, which bodes well for FarmVille and other apps on the social network.
Ico adds that Turkish Flash games portal Oynlarl receives more than 6.5 million unique visitors. Virtual worlds in the region also show promise, especially when one looks at OyunStudyosu's Sanalika, a locally developed game that pulled in three million registered users in just six months.
The agency points out that publishers still face several challenges when bringing their onine titles to Turkey, like the difficulties attracting new audiences because of the lack of a mainstream gaming culture, monetization opportunities limited to e-pins (codes sold by cyber cafes), and the online gaming space's demographic comprising mostly of younger males.
The Turkish government also has an unsteady relationship with the industry, as its Turkish Internet Bureau recently blocked around 6,000 websites like FarmVille, LastFM, and MySpace from showing up on computers in the country. Zynga's titles were supposedly blocked due to it publishing games like Live Poker that "promoted gambling."
