Just a day after Online game company HiPiHi saw a small shot of venture capital come in, The9 saw a much larger chunk of funding come their way from international gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA).

News of the EA investment in China's gaming industry came to us from Games Industry Wire's blog.

The deal seems to be designed to bring the FIFA Online game (which has a dedicated following in neighboring Korea) to the Chinese public. The9 has about a 10% share of China's online gaming audience, making it the fourth largest gaming company in China (after Shanda, Netease, and ZhengTU).

The9 is dedicated at this point to multiplayer online role-playing games (or MMORPGs) and seems unlike to compete with either HiPiHi or Shanda in the virtual reality market.

FIFA is an acronym for Fédération Internationale de Football Association and the game simulates soccer.