Nexon Reports 18% Drop in Operating Profit Last Year... "Targeting Global Market with New Releases This Year" (Comprehensive)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Nexon announced on the 8th that it recorded consolidated sales of 2.853 trillion KRW (274.5 billion JPY) and operating profit of 951.6 billion KRW (91.5 billion JPY) last year. These figures represent decreases of 6% and 18%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Net profit was recorded at 1.1943 trillion KRW (114.9 billion JPY), an increase of 104%.

In the fourth quarter of last year, sales amounted to 563.9 billion KRW (54.3 billion JPY), down 18% year-on-year, and operating profit was 30.9 billion KRW (3.0 billion JPY), down 81%. Net profit turned positive compared to the same period last year.

Nexon performed well with strong sales exceeding expectations from ‘Blue Archive,’ which was globally launched in November last year, and ‘Sudden Attack,’ which recorded more than double the annual sales compared to the previous year. However, due to the base effect from the record-high mobile sales in 2020, sales and operating profit declined.

Owen Mahoney, CEO of Nexon Japan, commented on the results, saying, "2021 was a year in which the entire company focused its capabilities on developing major new IPs amid steady success of key live games." He added, "As we plan to release our most anticipated titles this year, we will make every effort to secure new growth engines."

Nexon plans to target the global market this year by leveraging its signature intellectual properties (IPs). First, ‘Dungeon & Fighter Mobile,’ a mobile reinterpretation of one of Nexon’s representative IPs, ‘Dungeon & Fighter,’ will be released on the 24th of next month.

‘Dungeon & Fighter Mobile,’ the most anticipated title that consolidates Neople’s expertise in the action genre, is an action RPG that brings the original’s exhilarating action to the mobile platform. During a guerrilla test held for just six hours in December last year, hundreds of thousands of users participated, praising the game’s features such as manual combat, 2D dot graphics, and convenient skill usage.

The global multi-platform racing game ‘KartRider: Drift’ is also under development with a target release this year. It is a next-generation casual racing game that implements the ‘KartRider’ IP with 4K UHD high-resolution graphics. The development team is currently enhancing the game’s completeness by reflecting feedback from the closed beta test (CBT) conducted in December last year.

The lineup will be significantly strengthened with new titles crossing genres and platforms. First, the online new title ‘CurseFell’ has been open for pre-registration since January. It is an anime-style third-person battle action game characterized by its sense of action and charming characters.

‘HIT2,’ Netmarble’s MMORPG new title, which revealed its concept images for the first time on the 26th, is also under development with a target release in 2022. It inherits the world of the action RPG ‘HIT,’ which marked a milestone in Nexon’s mobile games, and is planned for release on both mobile and PC multi-platforms.

Titles based on new original IPs are also in preparation. ‘Project ER’ is notable for significantly lowering the entry barrier to siege warfare, which had been the exclusive domain of top players in the MMORPG genre. Designed with the theme of ‘popularizing siege warfare’ so that anyone can capture bases, ‘Project ER’ is known as the largest-scale development project in Nexon’s history in terms of the number of developers involved.

Additionally, Nexon plans to leap forward this year as a comprehensive entertainment content company that breaks down media boundaries. Recently, it made a strategic investment of 400 million USD in AGBO, a global entertainment production company founded by the world-renowned Russo brothers, expanding the utilization scope of its owned and developed IPs and accelerating the acquisition of additional growth momentum.

Moreover, Nexon established the joint venture YN C&S in collaboration with four companies: YG Entertainment, Naver, Wysiwyg Studios, and NP. Utilizing the infrastructure created by YN C&S is expected to enable content production based on Nexon’s IPs.

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