OGPlanet is licensing popular games in Korea and modifying them for the U.S. market, betting that the trend is going to be big here.
The translated games are graphics-intensive role-playing games, such as Cabal (homepage screenshot above).
So far, things are going pretty good, the company says. "The percentage of buyers of [virtual goods] is a lot lower than in Asia," it tells VentureWire, which reports that the company is profitable and has raised an undisclosed third round of funding from DFJ Athena.
"[B]ut another significant difference with Asia is once [Americans] become a buyer, they buy a lot more than Asian buyers." Ah, yes. American consumerism kicking into action.
El Segundo-based OGPlanet, owned by Gamefactory, previously raised an undisclosed amount of second-round funding from LG Venture Investments and M Ventures, according to the report.
OGPlanet raised a first round of venture funding from a number of prominent game and media executives, including Richard Wolpert, former President of Disney Online and a strategic advisor to RealNetworks and Accel Partners; Mark Surfas, formerly founder and CEO of GameSpy; Peter Levin, CEO of BellRock Media; and Andrew Wright, former Vice President of RealArcade and currently CEO of SmileBox. Seattle-based RealNetworks is also an investor.