It's official: the long-predicted Chinese gaming boom is finally beginning to enter fruition, with China's official news agency announcing on Valentine's day growth in the market of some 47.9% - taking the total value to nearly 2.5 billion (nearly £600 million) Yuan, a huge increase over 2003's 1.3 billion Yuan. Over 20 million people now play online titles in China, a big increase from 2003's 13.8 million. has the world's second largest online population - with around 94 million users quoted.

Many online games in China currently come from abroad - particularly Korea and Japan, but also from and North America - though new laws and measures by the government are currently cracking down on these 'foreign' influences, which the powers that be have occasionally derided as variously immoral, corrupting and even offensive to China's national dignity. Instead, Beijing is helping fund new Chinese games and developers, in order to foster more home grown titles which they hope could engender more healthy ideals. Analysts predict strong growth to continue for at least another four to five years.

By Luke Guttridge

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