58 Million Pre-registrations... 'Dungeon & Fighter Mobile' Big Hit Preheat

Dungeon & Fighter Mobile to Target Chinese Market on 12th Next Month
Chinese Influencers Engage in 1-on-1 Battles in Dungeon & Fighter Mobile

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Chinese game influencers will compete in one-on-one battles using characters from Nexon's "Dungeon & Fighter (DNF) Mobile." The event is called "Contest." Tencent, which is in charge of publishing (servicing) DNF Mobile in China, planned the event. Requests from influencers wanting to participate in the Contest are pouring in. With as many as 58 million people pre-registering for DNF Mobile, Nexon is quietly expecting a "blockbuster hit."

◆Entering the Chinese Market for the First Time in 3 Years Since THAAD = According to the gaming industry on the 2nd, Nexon's highly anticipated title DNF Mobile will target the Chinese market on August 12. Tencent, which successfully launched the PC game "DNF" in China, is responsible for the Chinese service of DNF Mobile. Since March 2017, the Chinese government has not issued game licenses (distribution permits) to Korean games, citing the THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) conflict as a pretext. However, the DNF Mobile version had already secured a license around 2016, which turned out to be a "masterstroke." The last domestic game to receive a license from the Chinese government and officially launch in China was Fincon's "Angel Stone" in November 2016, making DNF Mobile the first Korean game released locally in four and a half years.

DNF Mobile is a 2D action RPG mobile game based on the DNF intellectual property (IP), which started domestic service in 2005 and entered China in 2008, becoming a representative steady-seller game. As the mobile version of DNF, which gained huge popularity in China, local reactions have been hot even before its release. Since pre-registration began in December last year, more than 58 million Chinese have participated, proving its popularity. The number of pre-registrants exceeds the entire population of South Korea (about 52 million). Initially, Nexon and Tencent set a pre-registration target of 40 million for DNF Mobile, so the actual number far exceeded expectations. Accordingly, insiders at Nexon expect DNF Mobile to enjoy a second heyday in China. A Nexon official said, "We are also planning large-scale launch marketing that matches the high expectations locally in China."

◆Approaching Annual Sales of 3 Trillion KRW = DNF is Nexon's flagship PC game with about 700 million members worldwide. It surpassed 5 million concurrent users in China and recorded a peak concurrent user count of 290,000 in South Korea. Due to its popularity, DNF generates over 1 trillion KRW in annual sales every year and accounts for 40% of Nexon's total sales and over 90% of Nexon's sales in China, serving as Nexon's "cash cow." Therefore, if DNF Mobile succeeds in China as DNF did, there is speculation that Nexon could achieve annual sales of 3 trillion KRW. Nexon's annual sales were 2.5296 trillion KRW in 2018 and 2.684 trillion KRW last year, approaching the 3 trillion KRW milestone. Since sales in the first half of this year are expected to be similar to last year, if DNF Mobile generates more than 400 billion KRW in sales in China, surpassing 3 trillion KRW in total sales is possible. An industry insider predicted, "Recently, Chinese gamers prefer mobile games over PC games, and since new mobile games tend to have a greater sales increase effect than PC games, Nexon's performance is expected to increase significantly from the third quarter thanks to DNF Mobile."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.