Nexon accelerates drive for mobile game market

By Yoon Sung-won

Nexon, the nation’s largest game enterprise, is expanding its presence in the mobile game market both at home and abroad, solidifying its dominant position in the domestic online game industry.

The company, which celebrated its 20th anniversary last December, successfully introduced the free-to-play (F2P) business model and live customer service to the domestic online computer game market.

Based on its experience in developing popular games in Korea, Nexon has reached out to the global market by establishing subsidiaries worldwide and by actively building partnerships with global game enterprises.

Since last year, the company has turned its eye to more to overseas markets, tapping into diverse content and intellectual properties. The move came not only in the online computer game sector, in which it has demonstrated its strength, but also in the mobile sector where it is rapidly expanding its presence worldwide.

One of the most successful examples of collaboration with a foreign partner is the mobile strategy game named “DomiNations.”

The title was developed by U.S. game company, Big Huge Games, a developer of the renowned strategy game, Civilization 2, and has now been published by Nexon in major global markets. Starting with the North American and European markets in April, DomiNations has been launched in Japan, Taiwan and Korea and has had over 12 million downloads in five months since its release.

In this game, users choose one of eight empires, including Rome, Britain, France, Germany, China, Japan, Greece and Korea, and develop their own empire from the Stone Age to the industrial era. This game’s system allows users to come up with creative strategic ideas in competing with other players to gather valuable resources required to develop technologies, construct buildings and train armies.

Nexon said it is also pushing a global one-build strategy to target the domestic and overseas markets at the same time. Unlike the ordinary global mobile game strategy where companies develop different versions of a game for each market, the one-build strategy adopts only one version of a game that offers diverse language support and is available in all regions.

Nexon plans to try the global one-build strategy with its mobile strategic role-playing game “Fantasy War Tactics.” This game is being developed by Nexon’s subsidiary, Nexon GT, and has already been released early in some overseas markets, including Australia, Netherlands, Malaysia and Finland in July as a test before the official global launch.

Nexon said it is preparing for a global launch of the game before the end of the year.

In Fantasy War Tactics, which features hero characters, users will be asked to tap into diverse strategic points to foster their characters and finish missions, Nexon said.

The company also said it is drawing favorable market response with its card game “Mabinogi Duel,” also developed by a subsidiary, devCAT Studio.

First launched in June in Korea, the game has been tested in Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland since September. The official global launch will be later this year, the company said.

In Mabinogi Duel, users choose five types of resources and 12 cards to build their own deck and compete with the computer or other players to win card battles. Based on Nexon’s popular online role-playing game “Mabinogi,” the mobile card game has adopted high-quality card illustrations that have been widely recognized by gamers both at home and abroad.

Nexon has also diversified its mobile game business strategy by securing global content and intellectual properties.

In March, the company announced a partnership with Japanese game company, Square Enix, to jointly develop a mobile version of role-playing game, “Final Fantasy XI.”

Nexon said the mobile version of Final Fantasy XI is scheduled to be launched in 2016 in Japan and Korea as well as North America and Europe.

The partnership with Square Enix has helped Nexon secure a global title which has already gained popularity with game fans worldwide, giving the company an opportunity to compete in the global mobile game market.

Besides Square Enix, Nexon has signed a license contract with TT Games, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers that holds intellectual property to develop mobile games and publish them worldwide. Nexon said it plans to launch a mobile role-playing game in Korea and in Asian countries first in 2016.

Under an exclusive license contract with Japanese game maker, KOEI-Techmo Games, it is developing “Sangokushi Sousouden Online,” based on the computer game with the same name.

The game originated from the Chinese classic “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” a story based on the real history of ancient China.

Nexon said it will make the computer strategy game into role-playing game that will include hundreds of battlefields, playable commanders and skills.

The company said it plans to test-operate Sangokushi Sousouden online before the year is over and roll out the official version at home and abroad later.