History
Nexon was established inAcquisition of Wizet
In April 2001, Wizet, a game development company, was established inAcquisition of Neople
Nexon is also the developer of ''Dungeon Fighter Online, 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. In April 2013, the programmer "DrUnKeN ChEeTaH" was sued by Nexon America for operating GameAnarchy, a popular subscription-based cheat provider for ''Combat Arms (video game), Combat Arms''. Nexon was awarded $1.4 million in damages. 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. 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. However, on July 8, 2019, Reuters reported that the plan was abandoned. On November 25, 2019, The Lego Group announced the acquisition of Bricklink, a 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. 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. 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 News, Bloomberg that Saudi Arabian-based Public Investment Fund had purchased just over a 5% stake in Capcom and Nexon, reportedly worth United States dollar, US$883 million, while American investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, 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. According to their own report, the Korean region earned the company the most in Q1–Q2 2022. In late 2023, Nexon announced that CEO Owen Mahoney will be succeeded by Nexon Korea CEO Junghun Lee in 2024. 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. Nexon made Mintrocket a wholly owned subsidiary in September 2024.Lawsuits
In 2018, the company was fined (about ) for giving players false probability information surrounding microtransactions gambling for loot boxes in ''Sudden Attack''. 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. 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 (service), 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. This lawsuit was dismissed on August 17, 2023. The game is subsequently once again available on Steam. In 2021, a ''MapleStory'' user, Kim, sued Nexon for its failure to provide detailed probability information. The Fair Trade Commission (South Korea), 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''. The Supreme Court of Korea, Supreme Court ended up ruling in favor of Kim; they ordered Nexon to give back five percent of the spent money to Kim. 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 (). In 2024, the company was fined by the Korea Fair Trade Commission for a record-breaking () fee for misleading players over microtransactions in ''MapleStory'', which violated South Korea's Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.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.Studios
Free-to-play online virtual worlds
As of August 2022, Nexon Virtual Worlds' most valuable entertainment franchises are: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 App Store (Apple), 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. 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. 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. It has announced that it will be publishing ''ARC Raiders'', ''The First Descendant'', ''Project AK'', and ''Crazyracing Kartrider#KartRider: Drift, KartRider: Drift'' for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox in around 2025.Games
See also
* Nexon Computer MuseumReferences
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nexon Nexon, 2011 initial public offerings Chaebol Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Japanese companies established in 1994 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies Mass media companies based in Tokyo Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Multinational companies headquartered in South Korea Public Investment Fund Publishing companies established in 1994 Software companies based in Tokyo South Korean companies established in 1994 Video game companies established in 1994 Video game companies of South Korea Video game development companies Video game publishers