Nexon
South Korean-Japanese video game company
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Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerly Korean: 넥슨) is a South Korean–Japanese video game developer and publisher specializing in live service games. It develops and publishes titles including MapleStory, Crazyracing Kartrider, Sudden Attack, Dungeon & Fighter, The First Descendant, and Blue Archive. Headquartered in Japan, the company has offices in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and Thailand.[7]
| Nexon Co., Ltd. | |
|---|---|
 | |
Native name | |
| Type | Public |
| TYO: 3659 | |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | December 26, 1994 Seoul, South Korea |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan[1] |
| Key people | |
| Revenue | ¥274.5 billion (2021)[5] |
| ¥91.5 billion (2021)[5] | |
| ¥114.9 billion (2021)[5] | |
| Owner | NXC (60.2%) |
Number of employees | 7,067 (Dec. 2021)[6] |
| Parent | NXC |
| Subsidiaries | § Organization |
| Website | nexon |
Nexon was founded in Seoul, South Korea, in 1994 by Kim Jung-ju. In 2005, the company moved its headquarters to Tokyo, Japan. However, its largest shareholder is NXC, an investment and holding company headquartered in Jeju Province, South Korea.[8]
History
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Nexon was established on December 26, 1994, in Seoul, South Korea. It developed and published its first title, Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, in 1996, which the company continues to service.[9] Numerous other games followed, such as Dark Ages: Online Roleplaying, Elemental Saga, QuizQuiz, KartRider, Elancia, and Shattered Galaxy;[10] some of which are maintained by a company spun off of Nexon, Kru Interactive.[11]
Acquisition of Wizet
In April 2001, Wizet, a game development company, was established in Seoul, South Korea.[12] The company was initially led by Seung-chan Lee, who was previously a lead developer for Nexon's QuizQuiz.[13] Wizet would develop and eventually release MapleStory for Korea in April 2003. Shortly after its release, the game reached a milestone of 100,000 concurrent users and 2 million registered users, according to the company's now-defunct website.[14] Wizet would launch MapleStory in Japan later that year with similar claims of success. In 2004, Nexon acquired Wizet[15] and since then has maintained active development and publishing of MapleStory.[16]
Acquisition of Neople
Nexon is also the developer of Dungeon & Fighter, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Neople.[17][18] Dungeon & Fighter is one of the most popular free-to-play online PC games in China.[18][19]
2010s
Nexon went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 14, 2011, in an initial public offering, the largest in Japan for 2011 and the second largest by a technological company for 2011 worldwide.[20] In April 2013, the programmer "DrUnKeN ChEeTaH" was sued by Nexon America for operating GameAnarchy, a popular subscription-based cheat provider for Combat Arms. Nexon was awarded $1.4 million in damages.[21]
On March 9, 2016, Nexon acquired Big Huge Games, a mobile game developer in Maryland.[22] In October 2018, a labor union was established at Nexon.[23] On January 3, 2019, The Korea Economic Daily reported that Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju and associates had put their 98.64 percent stake up for sale.[24] However, on July 8, 2019, Reuters reported that the plan was abandoned.[25] On November 25, 2019, The Lego Group announced the acquisition of Bricklink, a Lego fan community from Nexon's parent company NXC,[26] for an unknown price, which is expected to finish before the end of 2019.[27]
In 2019, the company announced plans to acquire Embark Studios, a studio founded by Patrick Söderlund, the former Chief Design Officer of Electronic Arts.[28]
2020s
On June 2, 2020, Nexon announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in listed entertainment companies.[29] By March 2021, Nexon had deployed $874 million of that amount on investments into Hasbro, Bandai Namco Holdings, Konami, and Sega Sammy Holdings. Nexon stated that it had no interest in outright acquiring or taking activist investor positions in these companies.[30]
Blue Archive, a real-time strategy role-playing game developed by MX Studio (under Nexon Games) and IO Division, was published by Yostar in Japan on February 4, 2021,[31][32][33][34] and worldwide on November 8 of the same year by Nexon.[35][36]
In February 2021, Nexon announced significant pay increases for new and existing development talent in the company's Korean studios.[37] In July 2021, Nexon announced the formation of Nexon Film and Television. The division is based in Los Angeles.[38] In a 2021 earnings call in August, Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney declined to offer hard launch targets for highly anticipated games.[39] In January 2022, Russo brothers-owned film production company AGBO sold a $400 million minority stake to Nexon, which is valued at $1.1 billion as Nexon takes a 38% stake.[40] In February 2022, it was reported by Bloomberg that Saudi Arabian-based Public Investment Fund had purchased just over a 5% stake in Capcom and Nexon, reportedly worth US$883 million, while American investment company KKR acquired an 8.5% stake.[41]
In May 2022, Nexon announced the launch of Mintrocket, a sub-brand and division of Nexon that specializes on games "focusing on the essence of fun".[42] Its first game, Dave the Diver, was a commercial hit, selling one million copies within ten days of launch.[43] According to its own report, the Korean region earned the company the most in Q1–Q2 2022.[44] In late 2023, Nexon announced that CEO Owen Mahoney will be succeeded by Nexon Korea CEO Junghun Lee in 2024.[45] Nexon announced the development of The Kingdom of the Winds 2 on October 30, 2024, the sequel to its first-ever release 28 years ago.[46] Nexon made Mintrocket a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2024.[47]
In July 2024, Pixelberry Studios was acquired to Series Entertainment, for an undisclosed amount.[48]
Lawsuits
In 2018, the company was fined ₩939 million (about US$717,000) for giving players false probability information surrounding microtransactions gambling for loot boxes in Sudden Attack.[49] Nexon Korea stated that the phrase "random provision" was to suggest that the odds of obtaining each item were different, not that all of them have equal odds.[50]
In early 2023, Nexon filed a cease and desist letter and a lawsuit against video game studio Ironmace, alleging that it stole files and ideas from Nexon's canceled project called "P3" and used them in its game called Dark and Darker.[51][52] Nine "P3" project members had left the company and joined Ironmace, which was started soon after the project's cancellation in 2021.[53][54] According to Ironmace, it is one of these former Nexon employees (who is alleged to have leaked the assets) who is the sued party, and not the company itself.[52] A police complaint filed by Nexon reportedly led to a police raid of Ironmace's offices in March 2023.[54] After the game was removed from Steam, Ironmace distributed it via BitTorrent, made available on the game's Discord server. Nexon also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States on April 20, 2023.[55] This lawsuit was dismissed on August 17, 2023.[56] The game is subsequently once again available on Steam.[57]
In 2021, a MapleStory user, Kim, sued Nexon for its failure to provide detailed probability information. The Korea Fair Trade Commission reported that Nexon, for a decade, has lowered the probability of players drawing certain character equipment when spending real cash on Cubes ("and setting the probability of winning some Cubes to zero") in MapleStory.[58][49] The Supreme Court ended up ruling in favor of Kim; they ordered Nexon to give back five percent of the spent money to Kim.[59] Nexon then accepted the Korea Consumer Agency's recommendation to compensate the damaged 800,000 users; the amount of compensated in-game cash equaled to about ₩21.9 billion (US$19.1 million).[58] In 2024, the company was fined by the Korea Fair Trade Commission for a record-breaking ₩11.6 billion (US$8.9 million) fee for misleading players over microtransactions in MapleStory, which violated South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.[60]
Organization
Nexon maintains various offices around the world that engage in the publishing and/or development of Nexon's games. Each region's local consolidated subsidiaries are independently managed and are responsible for developing its own strategy for its products and services.[61]
| Region | Company name |
|---|---|
| Japan | Nexon Co., Ltd.; gloops, Inc. |
| Korea | Nexon Korea Corporation; Neople Inc.; Nexon Games Co., Ltd.; JoongAng Pangyo Development Co., Ltd.; Mirae Asset Global Innovation Growth Focus Equity Privately Placed Investment Trust; VIP Global Super Growth Hedge Fund |
| China | Lexian Software Development (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. |
| North America | Nexon America Inc.; Big Huge Games, Inc. |
| Other | Nexon Europe GmbH; gloops Vietnam Co., Ltd.; Nexon Taiwan Ltd.; Nexon Thailand Co., Ltd. |
Studios
| Studios[1] | Location | Founded/acquired[63] | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nexon Korea | Seoul, Korea | December 1994 | ||
| Nitro Studios | 2020 | previously Nexon Korea Internal Teams | ||
| devCat | 2020 | |||
| Mintrocket[47] | 2024 | |||
| Nexon Games | Nexon Games Seoul | July 2010 | previously known as NAT Games | |
| MX Studio | 2020 (earliest known) | previously under NAT Games prior to the restructure | ||
| RX Studio | 2024 | Immediately formed under IO Division | ||
| IO Division | 2024 | Acts as an umbrella company to help other Nexon games that target "subculture", as well as direct management for both MX Studio and RX Studio's live service bishoujo games.[64] | ||
| Nexon Games Pangyo | Pangyo-dong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Korea | June 2018 | previously Nexon GT | |
| Neople | Jeju City, Korea | August 2008 | ||
| Embark Studios | Stockholm, Sweden | July 2019 | ||
| Big Huge Games | Timonium, Maryland, United States | March 2016 | ||
Free-to-play online virtual worlds
As of August 2022, Nexon Virtual Worlds' most valuable entertainment franchises are:[44]
| Franchise | Launch date | Registered players | Lifetime revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dungeon & Fighter | 2005 | + 850 million | > $20 billion |
| MapleStory | 2003 | + 180 million | > $3 billion |
| KartRider | 2004 | + 380 million | > $1 billion |
| Sudden Attack | 2005 | + 23 million | > $0.7 billion |
| Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds | 1996 | + 26 million | N/A |
| Mabinogi | 2004 | + 20 million | > $0.6 billion |
Games for mobile and consoles
Nexon began as a developer and publisher of PC games. However, in 2020, the company announced plans to begin releasing both console and mobile versions of key franchises.
In 2017, Nexon previously published LawBreakers for PlayStation 4 from Boss Key Productions. In July 2020, the South Korean launch of The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon for mobile was the top-grossing title on the Apple App Store and #2 on Google Play, 24 years after the launch of the initial The Kingdom of the Winds game in 1996. In August 2020, the release of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China generated more than 60 million pre-registrations before it was delayed.[65]
Nexon operates in over 190 countries, but revenue and consumer engagement are concentrated in Asian markets. In 2021, the company announced a series of games in development for global release – with a focus on Europe and North America.[66] Mahoney stated that it hoped to launch big titles with a 'Western sensibility', such as the game ARC Raiders from Embark Studios. In March 2022, Dungeon & Fighter Mobile was released in South Korea, and later in China in May 2022.[67] It has announced that it will be publishing ARC Raiders, The First Descendant, Project AK, and KartRider: Drift for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox in around 2025.[68][69]