Gravity Co., Ltd. ( ko, 그라비티 주식회사) is a South Korean

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...

primarily known for the development of the

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

Ragnarok Online ''Ragnarok Online'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인, marketed as ''Ragnarök'', and alternatively subtitled ''The Final Destiny of the Gods'') is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Gravity based on the manhwa '' ...

''.

History

The corporation started as a small business in Shinsa-dong, Kangnam-ku,

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, South Korea and has expanded to an international corporate interest with several subsidiary divisions. On 8 February 2005, Gravity Corporation made their

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

and traded $108 million US dollars on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

under the

ticker symbol A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. In short, ticker symbols are arrangements of symbols or characters (generally Latin letters ...

GRVY, making it the first Korean game company to be listed on the NASDAQ. The company has had a rather turbulent history initially involving internal political conflicts between CEO Hakyu Kim (who eventually left the company), and company president Jung Ryool Kim (who later assumed control as CEO), but has since stabilised and expanded operations to all of north and south-east Asia through supervised partnerships with native corporate entities. However, while Gravity Corporation's flagship product

is considered a success in Asia, operations are not as well developed in Europe and the United States in comparison to similar products marketed and developed there. Jung Ryool Kim, diverted approximately $6 million in company funds to himself between 2002 and 2004, which eventually led to an investigation, settlement, and corrections of financial statements for those years. On 30 August 2005, Jung Ryool Kim, the controlling shareholder, sold his 52% stake and set plans to quit as a director. The buyers of his shares were Ezer and Techno Groove (which later merged into Asian Groove) of Japan, a pair of technology ventures controlled by Il Young Ryu and Taizo and Masayoshi Son. After becoming the new majority shareholder, on 13 September 2005, Il Young Ryu was named by Gravity as its new chairman and joint chief executive. EZER subsequently returned Techno Groove's investment of 9.9 billion yen to Asian Groove, which gave up any interest in Gravity. On 19 October 2007, EZER sold their interest in Gravity to Son Assets Management or SAM. On 22 May 2006, Gravity announced it had invested $9 Million in US game developer

Perpetual Entertainment Perpetual Entertainment, founded in March 2002, was an American developer, publisher and operator of networked multiplayer games and MMORPGs. Their headquarters was located in San Francisco, California, United States. From October 2007 to Februar ...

. Consequently, Gravity received a position on Perpetual's board of directors. Gravity also received "priority rights for future access to contents and other intellectual property rights of Perpetual Entertainment." On 21 November 2007, Gravity announced they had lost their investment after Perpetual cancelled its development of the MMORPG Gods and Heroes. On 5 December 2007, Gravity announced they had formed a new US-based game developer, L5 Games. L5 is a subsidiary of Gravity Interactive, Inc. and is based in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ; ) is a city in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula. About 20 miles (32 km) south of San Francisco, the city borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster C ...

. The company was composed of former

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, Inc. by three graduat ...

employees, and went into liquidation in 2008. On 14 February 2008,

GungHo Online Entertainment is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. They are primarily known for hosting the Japanese server of ''Ragnarok Online'' (developed by its listed Korean subsidiary Gravity), as well as their development of ''Ragnarok DS'' for the Ninten ...

obtained 52.4% stake of Gravity.

Legal Issues

Gravity faced litigation in 2006 when two US based hedge funds complained that majority shareholders and officers had violated their fiduciary obligations. In 2007, Gravity agreed to settle for $10 million, but continued to deny any wrongdoing.

Titles

The following are games that have been published and/or are currently being developed by Gravity.

Ragnarok Oddysey

Ragnarok Odyssey was developed by

Game Arts is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Originally established in 1985 as a computer software company, it expanded into producing for a number of game console and handheld systems. Its President and CEO i ...

and released in February, 2012 for

Playstation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

''Requiem: Bloodymare''

''Requiem: Bloodymare'' ( ko, 레퀴엠 온라인) is a

created by Gravity. It was released in South Korea on 31 August 2007 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

''Ice Age Online''

On 14 January 2008, the company announced an exclusive seven-year deal with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

licensing and merchandising to develop and publish "Ice Age Online", an online game based on Fox's ''Ice Age'' motion picture franchise, but development was halted in 2009.

''Ragnarok Online''

''Ragnarok Online'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인) is a

created by Gravity based on the

manhwa (; ) is the general Korean language, Korean term for comics and print cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to South Korea, South Korean comics. is greatly influenced by Japanese Manga comics. Modern Manhwa has extended its rea ...

'' Ragnarok'' by

Lee Myung-jin Lee Myoung-jin (born 1974) is a South Korean manhwa author and artist. His work '' Ragnarok'' was adapted into the game Ragnarok Online by Gravity Corp. This game was later turned into an anime. History Lee Myoung-Jin was born in South Korea ...

. It was released in South Korea on 31 August 2002 for

. Much of the game's mythos is based on

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

, but its style has been influenced by

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and various Asian cultures as well. The game has spawned an animated series, ''

Ragnarok the Animation ''Ragnarok: The Animation'' is a Japanese-Korean anime television series based on the MMORPG ''Ragnarok Online''. The story happens in the same world of Rune-Midgard. An evil entity called the Dark Lord wants to create chaos in the world with ...

'', and a sequel game, '' Ragnarok Online 2: Legend of the Second'', (a remake of '' Ragnarok Online 2: The Gate of the World'') released in South Korea on 26 March 2012. It has also spawned a beat 'em up game called ''Ragnarok Battle Offline'', which was developed by French Bread and published by Gravity.

''Ragnarok Online 2: Legend of The Second''

''Ragnarok Online 2: Legend of the Second'' ( ko, 라그나로크 온라인 2: Legend of the Second; is a

, the sequel to ''

''. Most of the game's universe is based on

. The soundtrack was produced by

Yoko Kanno is a Japanese composer, arranger and music producer best known for her work on the soundtracks of anime series, television series, live-action films, video games, and advertisements. She was born in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She has wri ...

, well known for her work in Cowboy Bebop and other anime series.

''ROSE Online''

''ROSE Online'', or ''Rush On Seven Episodes Online'' ( ko, 로즈 온라인) is a

which was created by Korean company Triggersoft and published by Gravity Corp. Triggersoft stopped developing the game in 2007, and the rights of ROSE Online were sold to several different companies which now develop and publish their own versions of the game. For instance, Gravity Interactive, Inc. develops and publishes its version of the game for 3 North American and 40 European countries.

''Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons''

''Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons'' is a beat 'em up game based on the arcade game '' Double Dragon II: The Revenge''. It was released for the

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

via

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

service.

''Ragnarok: Eternal Love''

Gravity released a mobile game titled Ragnarok: Eternal Love in 2017.

Ragnarok: Origin

Ragnarok: Origin is a mobile adaptation of the franchise which was released in 2021.

''Ragnarok Labyrinth NFT''

In 2022, Gravity released a version of Ragnarok featuring collectible

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

-based

non-fungible tokens A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the ...

(NFTs).

Mobile/Handheld

Gravity has also developed and/or published the following titles for mobile devices or portable consoles: * ''Ragnarok M: Eternal Love'' * ''Ragnarok X: Next Generation'' * ''Ragnarok R'' * ''MR!P: Miracle PORORO'' * ''MagicPuzzle Island'' * ''Ragnarok: Path of Heroes'' * ''RO: Idle Poring'' * ''Requiem Mobile'' * ''

Ragnarok DS ''Ragnarok DS'', known in Japan as , is a Nintendo DS video game based on the MMORPG ''Ragnarok Online'' and was released in Japan on December 18, 2008. It was announced that publisher Xseed Games had teamed up with developer GungHo Online Enterta ...

PC

Gravity Corporation has also developed and/or published the following PC game titles: * ''Arcturus - The Curse and Loss of Divinity'' * ''

Emil Chronicle Online ''Emil Chronicle Online'' ( ja, エミル・クロニクル・オンライン), often referred to as ''ECO'', was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game created by Headlock and published by GungHo. It was first released in Japan on Nov ...

'' * ''Paper Man'' * ''Pucca Racing'' * '' Requiem: Bloodymare'' * ''Stylia'' * ''Time N Tales''

Subsidiaries

Gravity owns a number of subsidiary companies, which publish and develop its games in countries and regions around the world. * Gravity Interactive publishes games in North America. It was established in March, 2003, and is based in

Buena Park, California Buena Park (''Buena'', Spanish for "Good") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census its population was 84,034. It is the location of several tourist attractions, namely Knott's Berry Farm. It is about 12 mi ...

. * Gravity CIS, Inc. publishes games in Russia and CIS countries. It was established in 2005 and is based in

Moscow, Russia Moscow ( , American English, US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia. The city stands on t ...

. * Gravity Europe SAS publishes games in Europe. It was established in September, 2006, and is based in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. * Neo Cyon, Inc., established in 2000, develops and publishes mobile games and MMORPGs. It was acquired by Gravity in 2005. * Triggersoft, which created ROSE Online, was acquired by Gravity in 2005. It was liquidated in 2007.

References

External links

Official Gravity Corporation website
{{Ragnarok franchise Video game companies of South Korea GungHo Online Entertainment Video game development companies Companies listed on the Nasdaq Video game companies established in 2000 South Korean companies established in 2000 2005 initial public offerings Companies based in Seoul South Korean subsidiaries of foreign companies