Nexon Co., Ltd.

Native name	주식회사 넥슨 (Korean) 株式会社ネクソン (Japanese)
Romanized name	Korean RR: Jusikhoesa Nekseun Japanese Hepburn: Kabushiki gaisha Nekuson
Company type	Public
Traded as	TYO:3659
Industry	Video games
Founded	December 26, 1994; 30 years ago (1994-12-26) Seoul, South Korea
Founders	Kim Jung-ju
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea (1994–2005) Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan[1]
Key people	Junghun Lee (president andCEO)[2] Shiro Uemura (CFO)[3][4]
Revenue	¥274.5 billion (2021)[5]
Operating income	¥91.5 billion (2021)[5]
Net income	¥114.9 billion (2021)[5]
Number of employees	7,067 (Dec. 2021)[6]
Subsidiaries	§ Organization
Website	nexon.com

Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerlyKorean: 주식회사 넥슨) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher. It develops and publishes titles includingMapleStory,Crazyracing Kartrider,Sudden Attack,Dungeon & Fighter, andBlue Archive. Headquartered in Japan, the company has offices in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan, and Thailand.^[7]

Nexon was founded inSeoul, South Korea, in 1994 byKim Jung-ju. In 2005, the company moved its headquarters toTokyo, Japan. However, its largest shareholder is investment and holding company NXC, headquartered inJeju Province, South Korea.^[8]

Nexon was established inSeoul, South Korea, on December 26, 1994. 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 asDark Ages: Online Roleplaying,Elemental Saga,QuizQuiz,KartRider,Elancia, andShattered Galaxy;^[10] some of which are maintained by a company spun off of Nexon,Kru Interactive.^[11]

In 2003, game development company Wizet developedMapleStory in Korea, which later became one of its most successful titles and has been serviced for more than two decades.^[12][13] The game was localized for Japan,China,Taiwan,Thailand,Singapore,North America,Europe,Brazil, andVietnam.^[14] Nexon is also the developer ofDungeon & Fighter, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Neople.^[15][16]Dungeon & Fighter is one of the most popular free-to-play online PC games in China.^[16][17]

Nexon went public on theTokyo Stock Exchange on December 14, 2011, in aninitial public offering, the largest in Japan for 2011 and the second largest by a technological company for 2011 worldwide.^[18] In April 2013, the programmer "DrUnKeN ChEeTaH" was sued by Nexon America for operating GameAnarchy, a popular subscription-based cheat provider forCombat Arms. Nexon was awarded $1.4 million in damages.^[19]

On March 9, 2016, Nexon acquiredBig Huge Games, a mobile game developer inMaryland.^[20] In October 2018, a labor union was established at Nexon.^[21] 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.^[22] However, on July 8, 2019, Reuters reported that the plan was abandoned.^[23] On November 25, 2019,The Lego Group announced the acquisition ofBricklink, a Lego fan community from Nexon's parent company NXC,^[24] for an unknown price, which is expected to finish before the end of 2019.^[25]

On June 2, 2020, Nexon announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in listed entertainment companies.^[26] By March 2021, Nexon had deployed $874 million of that amount on investments intoHasbro,Bandai Namco Holdings,Konami, andSega Sammy Holdings. Nexon stated that they had no interest in outright acquiring or takingactivist investor positions in these companies.^[27]

In a 2021 earnings call, Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney declined to offer hard launch targets for highly anticipated games.^[28] In February 2021, Nexon announced significant pay increases for new and existing development talent in the company's Korean studios.^[29] In July 2021, Nexon announced the formation of Nexon Film and Television. The division is based in Los Angeles.^[30] In January 2022,Russo brothers-owned film production companyAGBO sold a $400 million minority stake to Nexon, which is valued at $1.1 billion as Nexon takes a 38% stake.^[31] In February 2022, it was reported byBloomberg that Saudi Arabian-basedPublic Investment Fund had purchased just over a 5% stake inCapcom and Nexon, reportedly worthUS$883 million, while American investment companyKKR acquired an 8.5% stake.^[32]

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".^[33] Its first game,Dave the Diver, was a commercial hit, selling one million copies within ten days of launch.^[34] According to their own report, the Korean region earned the company the most in Q1–Q2 2022.^[35] In late 2023, Nexon announced that CEO Owen Mahoney will be succeeded by Nexon Korea CEO Junghun Lee in 2024.^[36] Nexon announced the development ofThe Kingdom of the Winds 2 on October 30, 2024, the sequel to its first-ever release 28 years ago.^[37] Nexon made Mintrocket a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2024.^[38]

In 2018, the company was fined₩939 million (about US$717,000) for giving players false probability information surroundingmicrotransactions gambling for loot boxes inSudden Attack.^[39] Nexon Korea stated that the phrase "random provision" was to suggest the items would be provided at random, not that all of them have equal odds.^[40]

In early 2023, Nexon filed acease and desist letter and a lawsuit against video game studio Ironmace, alleging that they stole files and ideas from Nexon's canceled project called "P3" and used them in their game calledDark and Darker.^[41][42] Nine "P3" project members had left the company and joined Ironmace, which was started soon after the project's cancellation in 2021.^[43][44] 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.^[42] A police complaint filed by Nexon reportedly led to a police raid of Ironmace's offices in March 2023.^[44] After the game was removed fromSteam, Ironmace distributed it viaBitTorrent, made available on the game'sDiscord server. Nexon also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States on April 20, 2023.^[45] This lawsuit was dismissed on August 17, 2023.^[46] The game is subsequently once again available on Steam.^[47]

In 2021, aMapleStory user, Kim, sued Nexon for its failure to provide detailed probability information. TheKorea 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") inMapleStory.^[48][39] TheSupreme Court ended up ruling in favor of Kim; they ordered Nexon to give back five percent of the spent money to Kim.^[49] 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).^[48] 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 inMapleStory, which violated South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.^[50]

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 their own strategy for their products and services.^[51]

As of August 2022, Nexon Virtual Worlds' most valuable entertainment franchises are:^[35]

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 publishedLawBreakers for PlayStation 4 fromBoss Key Productions. In July 2020, the South Korean launch ofThe Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon for mobile was the top-grossing title on theApple App Store and #2 onGoogle Play, 24 years after the launch of the initialThe Kingdom of the Winds game in 1996. In August 2020, the release ofDungeon & Fighter Mobile in China generated more than 60 million pre-registrations before it was delayed.^[56]

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.^[57] Mahoney stated that they hoped to launch big titles with a 'Western sensibility', such as the gameARC Raiders from Embark Studios. In March 2022,Dungeon & Fighter Mobile was released in South Korea, and later in China in May 2022.^[58] It has announced that it will be publishingARC Raiders,The First Descendant,Project AK, andKartRider: Drift for bothPlayStation 4 andXbox in around 2025.^[59][60]

• Nexon Computer Museum

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