my timesThe Korea Times
  1. Business
  2. Companies

NCSOFT leads peers in ESG ratings for 4 straight years

Listen
By Nam Hyun-woo
  • Published KST
  • Updated KST
NCSOFT headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of NCSOFT

NCSOFT headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province / Courtesy of NCSOFT

NCSOFT maintained its position as the highest-rated Korean game developer in Morgan Stanley Capital International's (MSCI) environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings for the fourth consecutive year.

According to the company, it was awarded an AA rating in the 2024 MSCI ESG ratings, becoming the only Korean game studio to earn the recognition. After winning an A grade in 2021, the company has been granted the second-highest AA ratings in three straight years.

Since 1999, MSCI has assessed listed companies worldwide on their ESG performances in a seven-grade rating system.

In the 2024 ratings, NCSOFT received high scores for its proactive measures in managing privacy risks, transparent disclosure of environmental information and establishment of an efficient employee grievance procedure. The company was also recognized as one of the industry’s top five companies in the information security and privacy protection category.

Additionally, NCSOFT said it also became the only Korean game company to be included in the 2024 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) Asia-Pacific index for the second consecutive year.

DJSI is one of the world’s top evaluation programs for corporate sustainable management run by S&P Global. The DJSI Asia Pacific index includes the top 20 percent of companies ranked by ESG performance among the 600 largest firms by market capitalization in the Asia-Pacific region.

In August, NCSOFT also won an A grade in the Korea Institute of Corporate Governance and Sustainability’s ESG ratings for the fourth consecutive year, leading its domestic rivals in the same category.

“The MSCI rating is a result that proves NCSOFT’s stable efforts toward sustainable management activities,” NCSOFT’s ESG Management Division head Kim Hyun-Joo said. “We will continue exploring tasks that can improve our ESG values and put them into practice to boost our mid- to long-term competitiveness.”