Nexon

Acquisition of Wizet

On April 2001, Wizet, a game development company, was established in Seoul, South Korea.^[12] The company was initially lead 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]

2020s

On June 2, 2020, Nexon announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in listed entertainment companies.^[28] 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 they had no interest in outright acquiring or taking activist investor positions in these companies.^[29]

In a 2021 earnings call, Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney declined to offer hard launch targets for highly anticipated games.^[30] In February 2021, Nexon announced significant pay increases for new and existing development talent in the company's Korean studios.^[31] In July 2021, Nexon announced the formation of Nexon Film and Television. The division is based in Los Angeles.^[32] 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.^[33] 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.^[34]

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".^[35] Its first game, Dave the Diver, was a commercial hit, selling one million copies within ten days of launch.^[36] According to their own report, the Korean region earned the company the most in Q1–Q2 2022.^[37] In late 2023, Nexon announced that CEO Owen Mahoney will be succeeded by Nexon Korea CEO Junghun Lee in 2024.^[38] 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.^[39] Nexon made Mintrocket a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2024.^[40]

Studios

Free-to-play online virtual worlds

As of August 2022, Nexon Virtual Worlds' most valuable entertainment franchises are:^[37]

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.^[58]

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.^[59] Mahoney stated that they 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.^[60] 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.^[61][62]