Nexon Co., Ltd. (formerly ) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher. It develops and publishes titles including MapleStory, Crazyracing Kartrider, Sudden Attack, Dungeon & Fighter, and Blue Archive. Headquartered in Japan, the company has offices in South Korea, the United States, Taiwan and Thailand. 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 investment and holding company NXC, headquartered in Jeju Island, South Korea.

History

Nexon was established in Seoul, 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. Numerous other games followed such as Dark Ages: Online Roleplaying, Elemental Saga, QuizQuiz, KartRider, Elancia, and Shattered Galaxy; some of which are maintained by a company spun off of Nexon, Kru Interactive.

MapleStory and Dungeon & Fighter

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

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. On March 9, 2016, Nexon acquired Big Huge Games, a mobile game developer in Maryland. In October 2018, a labor union was established at Nexon. 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 $1.4M in damages. On January 3, 2019, The Korea Economic Daily reported Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju and associates had put their 98.64 percent stake up for sale. However, on July 8, 2019, Reuters reported the plan was abandoned. On November 25, 2019, The Lego Group announced the acquisition of Bricklink, the world's largest Lego fan community from Nexon's parent company NXC, for an unknown price, which is expected to finish before the end of 2019.

2020s

On June 2, 2020, Nexon announced plans to invest $1.5 billion in listed entertainment companies. 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. Nexon signed with Bandai Namco Holdings, Square Enix and Microsoft for a 10-year Japanese–South Korean video gaming partnership contract for media franchises through 2032, for example HoPals Echoes crossover project. In a 2021 earnings call, Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney declined to offer hard launch targets for highly anticipated games. In February 2021, Nexon announced significant pay increases for new and existing development talent in the company's Korean studios. In July 2021, Nexon announced the formation of Nexon Film and Television, a division of the company focused on expanding the reach and value of Nexon's global IP, as well as development of new properties in both interactive and linear entertainment. The division is based in Los Angeles. 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. 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. 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". Its first game, Dave the Diver, was a commercial hit, selling one million copies within ten days of launch. Nexon made Mintrocket a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2024 following this success and to continue to develop innovative games. In late 2023, Nexon announced that CEO Owen Mahoney will be succeeded by Nexon Korea CEO Junghun Lee in 2024. In early 2023, Nexon filed a cease 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 called Dark and Darker. Nine "P3" project members had left the company and joined Ironmace, which was started soon after the project's cancellation in 2021. 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. A police complaint filed by Nexon reportedly led to a police raid of Ironmace's offices in March 2023. After the game was removed from Steam, Ironmace distributed it via BitTorrent, made available on the game's Discord server. A March IGN article described the situation as the "Dark and Darker legal scandal". Nexon also filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States on April 20, 2023. This lawsuit was dismissed on August 17, 2023. The game is subsequently once again available on Steam. Nexon announced the development of The Kingdom of the Winds 2 on 30 Oct. 2024, the sequel to its first-ever release 28 years ago.

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 their own strategy for their products and services. The subsidiary that publishes a game does not necessarily indicate the region(s) that a game is available in. For example, some of Nexon Korea's games are published directly by Nexon Korea yet are available worldwide with no separate service published under the local consolidated company's portfolio.

Studios

Free-to-play online virtual worlds

Nexon is a pioneer in free-to-play online Virtual World games which operate in contrast to games that require a large initial payment and offer a comparatively short life cycle. Nexon's Virtual Worlds make use of live, in-game operations to provide ongoing content and manage service. Nexon Live Operations helps engage players over years and, in some cases, decades. [On the other hand, Nexon is famous for shutting down games after they reached enough popularity and brought in enough profits]. Multiple Nexon Virtual Worlds are among the world's most valuable entertainment franchises:

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. CEO Owen Mahoney noted that expansion onto the two popular platforms "collectively represent an order-of-magnitude increase in our total addressable market." 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 story 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 highly anticipated release of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile in China generated more than 60 million pre-registrations before it was delayed. In March 2022, Dungeon&Fighter Mobile was released in South Korea, reaching the #1 spot on both the App Store and Google Play. It has already announced it will be publishing ARC Raiders, The First Descendant, Project AK and KartRider: Drift for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox. Nexon previously published one title for PlayStation 4 in 2017, LawBreakers from Boss Key Productions.

Expansion in Western markets

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.

Games

Microtransactions legal penalties

In 2018, the company was fined ₩939 million Won (about $717,000 USD) for giving players false information surrounding microtransactions in Sudden Attack. In 2024 the company was fined a record-breaking $9 million fee for misleading players over microtransactions in MapleStory.