NCsoft, Nexon Ignore Disney Courtship
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Walt Disney Company is determined to extend its dominance to computer games and claims to have found the right strategic partners in two of South Korea's leading game publishers. Curiously, the Koreans are acting as if they were the last ones to hear about the plans.
According to the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), Andy Bird, the chairman of Walt Disney International, told KCC chairman Choi See-joong in their recent meeting in Los Angeles that his company will team up with Korea's NCsoft and Nexon to develop games based on popular Disney cartoon characters.
But in a conference call on Monday, NCsoft chief financial officer Lee Jae-ho said he never heard about the plans. Nexon, which had been constantly mentioned in merger rumors with Disney, also confirmed that the company isn't involved in any projects linked with Disney's supposed interest in the Korean game market.
``Honestly, we haven't heard anything like what Disney reportedly said. As of now, we are not developing any games based on Disney characters,'' said NCsoft's Lee.
``It's true that our company talked with Disney before, but those were just casual business meetings that take place regularly.''
A Nexon spokesman said that the company had been in talks with Disney over business strategies for the North American market, but said Disney's aspirations for the Korean game market was never a topic.
NCsoft, the creator of immensely popular fantasy role-playing games such as ``Linux,'' ``Guild Wars'' and ``Aion,'' is Korea's largest online game publisher. The company saw its net income quadruple year-on-year at 33.5 billion won (about $27 million) in the January to March period thanks to the surging popularity of its new release, Aion.
Revenue increased 51.3 percent year-on-year to 133.4 billion won, while operating profit rose more than 128 percent at 42.5 billion won. Nexon trails NCsoft as the No. 2 player in the local game industry.
Talking to Korean reporters in Los Angeles, Choi said that Bird confirmed Disney's plans to team with NCsoft and Nexon to develop new content for the Korean and global market and possibly establish game production units.
Disney is already working closely with SK Telecom, the country's biggest mobile telephony operator to provide its movies and television shows to the handsets of SK Telecom subscribers.
However, with both NCsoft and Nexon receiving the news with wide eyes, either the KCC or Disney will have to provide further explanation.
There is a possibility that Korean policymakers may have exaggerated the content of the meeting between Choi and Bird, as they have been accused of jumping the gun before.
Last month, some officials at the KCC and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy told reporters that U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm is considering establishing a research and development (R&D) center in Korea.
However, Qualcomm officials are denying such suggestions, although the company is looking for Korean technology firms in which to invest through Qualcomm Ventures, its venture capital arm.