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| Nexon Korea Vice President Chung Sang-won speaks during a press conference at the Nexon Arena in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of Nexon Korea |
By Yoon Sung-won
Nexon is seeking to boost its presence in the mobile game sector by rolling out multiple new titles based on its computer online game intellectual properties (IPs).
The nation's largest online game company unveiled Monday seven new mobile games it has developed or plans to publish this year, including the mobile versions of its longstanding computer online hit titles Maple Story and Dungeon & Fighters.
As Nexon has suffered from multiple negative issues including catastrophic failure of its blockbuster online game Sudden Attack 2 and a corruption scandal involving its chief Kim Jung-ju, expectations are high that the new mobile games will help the company freshen itself up and make tangible results in boosting mobile game sales.
"As we endured the difficulties this summer, we have ruminated over our vocation as a game developer," Nexon Korea Vice President Chung Sang-won said during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. "We are pushing to introduce popular game IPs for our new mobile games, adding creative, entertaining ideas to them. We will strive to make the games better."
Nexon said it will introduce the mobile role-playing game (RPG) Maple Story M on Oct. 3 in Korea through both Google Play and Apple Appstore. Based on the story background and characters of the namesake computer online game, the game will feature action and game play on the mobile environment, the company said.
The company will publish a quiz game, Quiz Quiz, developed by Monster Planet, on Oct. 20 and a strategy simulation game Marching Legions by Cocoon Games on Oct. 27 also through both application markets.
In addition, Nexon said it will test beta versions of the new mobile games Dungeon & Fighters and Elsword Slash, both of which are developed based on Nexon's game IPs.
In particular, the mobile version of Dungeon & Fighters has drawn much attention as it already has a solid fan base with its online version title, the company said.
"Dungeon & Fighters has more than 400 million users globally and is especially popular in Korea, China and Japan," Nexon's domestic mobile business division head Noh Jung-hwan said. "We are developing two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions of the new mobile game. The 3D version, which is being developed by our subsidiary Neople, targets Korea while the 2D version will be published in China through Tencent."
The mobile version of Dungeon & Fighters features four heroes as well as a skill-based combination action system, a job-change system and raid modes, according to an official at Neople.
Meanwhile, Noh said it is researching virtual and augmented reality but has not decided on how to apply the technologies to its games.
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