Pacific Epoch has great data on Chinese online gaming markets and companies. You can get a free pre-release of their 2005 Q4 report here. Just a few of the many useful findings:
- percentage of game-playing internet population doubled from 2004 to
2005, with about 37 million gamers reported at end of 2005. - EA has committed to building a 500 person team in China by 2010; the Koreans are already ahead in the game, however. Legend of Mir continues to generate revenue–10% of all gaming revenue in 2005!
- WoW has opened up a generation of Chinese gamers to Western game and visual vocabularies such as what dwarves and elves look like.
Great collection of stats and news, thanks Lyn!
I love their categorization with the keyword map:
http://www.pacificepoch.com/keywordmap.php