Posts Tagged ‘maplestory’

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Nexon: Q1 revenues up 59 percent

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

Free-to-play/Microtransaction based games maker Nexon is reporting that it’s North American business unit, Nexon America, grew a healthy 59 percent in year-over-year first quarter revenues. Traditionally a slow season for the gaming industry, Nexon has beat the odds, making this growth particularly notable. The secret sauce behind Nexon’s impressive showing? A steady release of new content, resulting in increased user engagement and sales of microtransaction based items.

“Our success is the result of our ability to deliver engaging content that our players find valuable, whether they are playing for free or purchasing items in our games,” said Daniel Kim, CEO of Nexon America. “The substantial growth we are experiencing in North America is a reflection of how well Nexon is doing globally. We are growing our traditional MMOG business as well as expanding into other platforms such as the mobile and social games, which will help to expand our global reach and the number of people playing our games.”

In addition to their currently available Atlantica Online, Combat Arms, MapleStory, Vindictus, Dungeon Fighter Online, Mabinogi, and PopTag!, Nexon plans on a second appearance at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, and will showcase Dragon Nest, Nexon’s yet-to-be-released offering, as well as Vindictus. Dragon Nest is slated for a summer release for free-to-play PC gamers in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to Nexon, the title will combine fast-paced action alongside an engaging storyline and a the distinctive Nexon art style. Naturally, the title will be free-to-play, and microtransaction supported.

Likewise, as we recently reported, Nexon is teeing up a Facebook version, MapleStory Adventures, of the long running MapleStory franchise. And while Q1’s numbers are certainly impressive, with a Facebook launch of a perennial favorite, as well as a new “full” game, Nexon’s Q4 numbers should be poised to be off the charts.

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Nexon: How to make Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list two years running

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

After accomplishing a global spread of their innovative idea, free-to-play, Nexon is looking to the next generation of success, and has recently been named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Gaming for the second consecutive year.

We’ve covered Nexon’s various achievements this year, but a quick rundown sees the company diving head first into Mobile, Social, and Console gaming congruently.

On the mobile front, Nexon produced a special “Thief Edition,” of their bread-and-butter, side scroller, Maple Story for iOS devices in 2010, while March of this year saw the arrival of their “other” top seller, Kart Rider which counts a massive 200 million registered users worldwide. Within it’s first week of availability, Kart Rider clocked over 1 million downloads.

Socially, Nexon has been a bit late to the party, however they’re making up for it with a significant partnership with A Bit Lucky which focuses on cross-platform social gaming. Not putting all their eggs in one basket, Nexon has also founded the iNiative program which selected both Antic Entertainment and onetribe to receive $1 million in capital to put towards developing games for social networks. It’s still unclear as to who exactly is driving development, but Nexon has announced a Facebook bound version of MapleStory, aptly titled MapleStory Adventures.

And finally, on the console front, just last month, Nexon announced plans to bring their popular fighter, Dungeon Fighter Online to Xbox 360 users, available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, and Chinese.

Obviously, with so many plates spinning, Fast Company has, yet again, taken notice. Dungeon Fighter Online with it’s 200 million global registrants, and MapleStory (90 million worldwide registered users) are leading the charge, and the gleam of Fast Company’s eye. But it’s not just Nexon’s actual gaming titles that have garnered a nod from Fast Company. The organizations’ innovative business model surrounding their Game Cards which carry pre-determined amounts of NX, Nexon’s virtual currency, are available at more than 70,000 retailers across the US in 7-Eleven, Toys ‘R Us, and Gamestop outlets.

“While Nexon has had great success in Asia and North America, our efforts to expand our platform reach is a push to make Nexon a global gaming power,” said Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim in a statement. “To be named on the Fast Company list of Most Innovative Companies in Gaming two years in a row is truly such an honor for the entire organization. We look forward to many more years of offering the best gaming experience to our fans, whether that be PC, mobile or social network platforms.”

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Nexon brings KartRider and MapleStory to the social and mobile world

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Originator of the free-to-play model, Nexon has recently announced that they’re bringing their most popular titles, KartRider and MapleStory to the mobile and social world, respectively. KartRider Rush is targeted at iOS and Android platforms, while the classic side scrolling MapleStory Adventures will find a new home on Facebook. KartRider will arrive later this month (iOS), while MapleStory Adventures is set for a summer ’11 launch.

True to Nexon’s model, both titles will be free-to-play, and offer microtransactions as enhancements to the games, as well as provide a healthy revenue stream for Nexon. KartRider Rush will soon be a free iP (phone, pad, pod touch) app, with an Android based version arriving later this summer. KartRider Rush is a mobile/handheld version of KartRider; a title that counts a massive 200 million registered players worldwide. KartRider Rush features a multiplayer interface, allowing up to four players to race head to head on unique and challenging courses in both battle and time trial modes. If you’ve no friends to play with, fear not, as KartRider Rush also features a rich and engaging solo experience. Single player mode brings up a range of AI racers to square off against in Item Mode and Speed mode. Taking advantage of Facebook Connect, KartRider Rush fans can display their highscores and compare them against friends’ best lap times, etc. Nexon introduces the microtransactions in KartRider Rush via a variety of additional tracks all available for purchase.

On the Facebook front, Nexon brings the all-time classic, side scrolling, MapleStory (Adventures). Arriving this summer, Nexon has taken the already simple interface of MapleStory, and slimmed it down even further. MapleStory Adventures will provide the same MapleStory experience, only now on Facebook, as players are presented with a number of quests and challenges. Only now, they can ask for Facebook friend help in their trials and tribulations. Similar to the original MapleStory, Nexon will be offering microtransactions of the upgrade and in-game items variety.

“Expanding our global IPs into the social and mobile gaming space is a watershed moment in Nexon’s global expansion efforts,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO. “Not only will this move provide new ways for hundreds of millions of fans worldwide to experience Nexon’s games, it allows Nexon the opportunity to prove the robustness of its business model on new platforms.”

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Nexon North America reports a 42 percent jump in Q4 revenues

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Nexon America, the North American publishing arm of Nexon global, is reporting a healthy revenue jump of 42 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. Nexon is pointing to a strong showing in December, when Nexon reports a 60 percent increase in revenues YoY when compared to 2009’s revenues.

Nexon North America’s microtransaction based revenue generators include their highly successful FPS Combat Arms, classic MapleStory, Vindictus, Dungeon Fighter Online, Mabinogi, and PopTag! While now available for consideration on the “classics” list, Nexon’s one-that-started-it-all, MapleStory continues to drive revenues and expansion at Nexon North America, as the “Big Bang” expansion was a large driver of late 2010 revenues, bringing in not only a host of new players, but perhaps more importantly, pulling back lapsed players. As a point of reference, in mid-December, Nexon reports a massive 136,000 concurrent MapleStory players, a number that shattered the title’s previous record, in fact, nearly doubling the former record.

“It was a tremendous fourth quarter and year for Nexon and MapleStory’s Big Bang had a lot to do with it,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO in a statement. “Nexon has perfected a formula for gameplay with a business model that attracts players and keeps them loyal. Players don’t have to pay a cent to enjoy Nexon’s games, but our players who do pay to enhance their gameplay experience tend to spend more than the typical social gamer or subscription-based game player. Evidence of the success of this formula was seen with the release of the Big Bang expansion and the resulting increase in concurrent players and revenues.”

And although Nexon has been at it for some 10 years now, first introducing the world to the free-to-play, pay small bits of money in the game, aka microtransaction, model, the company doesn’t show any signs of resting on it’s collective laurels. 2011 hold a new title in store for Nexon America, the anticipated Dragon Nest – a fantasy based action MMOG. Initially unveiled at the 2010 E3 expo, Dragon Nest has been received with fervor in Korea and elsewhere.

“Dragon Nest will continue to raise the bar for microtransaction-based games and should energize the North American market with stylized graphics, fast action and immersive gameplay,” Kim said.

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Nexon acquires NDoors

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

NDoors, most noted for their development work in hit titles Atlantica and GoonZu has recently been acquired by Seoul, Korea based Nexon Corporation.

ndoorsMapleStory, and arguably microtransactions founder, Nexon Corporation announced it’s successful majority stake purchase of fellow Korean MMO firm NDoors Corp. The deal saw 67 percent of NDoors’ stake sold to Nexon. This percentage also includes shares from the former NDoors chairman, Seong-Mun Kwon. This majority stake buy in will now give Nexon management rights as the largest shareholder. At the end of the day, NDoors will be incorporated as a subsidiary of Nexon.

The logic behind the buy in is that NDoors’ talent will increase the enterprise value and strengthen Nexon’s core capabilities.

“Nexon has been carrying out ongoing investment in the companies with outstanding development efforts” said Su-Min, CEO of NEXON. “NDOORS, as well as an excellent development capability with domestic and international publishing capabilities would be a big help to expand NEXON’s portfolio and to carry out a global expansion policy” he added.

First established in 1999, originally under the name Intizen Co., NDoors is based in Seoul, Korea, and has licensed a number of MMORPGs in Europe and Asia. In the North American market, NDoors Interactive has made strides in the free-to-play department with Atlantica Online, WonderKing Online, and Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu.

NDoors’ pulled down around $36.3 million in 2009, with an operating profit of $14 million, with 72 percent of total sales coming from overseas distributors.

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Virtual Goods Summit standout – Asian VG Market worth ~$7 billion

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

While last week’s Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco had a wide range of facts, figures, details, and knowledge shared, the standout from this conference was +8 CEO Benjamin Joffe’s presentation on the Asian virtual goods market, and how it’s achieved a massive $7 billion valuation.

According to Joffe’s research, the nine largest publically traded online gaming companies have a valuation of $52 million. Conversely, the top four North American and European companies in the same group come in $30 million less, at $22 million.

Not only looking at just the numbers, Joffe went on to put a bit of history and development behind the figured. As duly noted, the virtual goods market and business model had it’s beginnings in Asia, primarily as a way to ward off game piracy. Recognizing the potential in the market, South Korea’s Nexon was one of the very first on the scene with virtual goods sales. 92 million registered users later, Nexon’s MapleStory is still generating revenues through virtual goods sales. Just a bit further to the north China’s Tencent is looking at $1.5 – $2 billion in sales from it’s popular QQ chat service which features a heavy online gaming influence. The bulk of these revenues are derived from virtual goods sales. According to Joffe, China’s total market could top $5 billion in revenue this year alone. Likewise, the lesser heard of Japanese virtual goods market shouldn’t be underestimated. Raking in over $1 billion a year, Japan’s top three social networks monetize manly through mobile games and their associated services. Perhaps one of the more extreme examples in the Japanese virtual goods marketplace, due to their rarity, Joffe reports that some virtual items have a real world market value of over $1,000, however, again, this is in extremely rare cases.

Joffe’s 127 slide powerpoint presentation from the Virtual Goods Summit:

Virtual Goods in Asia

View more documents from Benjamin Joffe.

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Nexon’s Min Kim on tap to deliver Keynote at GDC China

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

One of the best known, and most experienced individuals in the free-to-play video games industry, Nexon’s Min Kim is scheduled to deliver a keynote address at the 2009 Game Developers Conference China. The GDC China, presented by Think Services will take place at the Shanghai International Convention Center, this October 11th-13th.

min-kimKim’s address, titled “A Fantastic Westward Journey,” is slated to be filled with colorful anecdotes and words of advice to Chinese developers in regards to Nexon’s experiences in bringing popular Korean titles, as well as the free-to-play business model that has long been associated with the genre. Kim will also focus on how microtransactions were born in Asia, and for a long time, were thriving only in this market. Not so much today. He’ll talk about how this successful business model initially received a cold shoulder in the North American and European markets, but has today become a revolutionary catalyst in these markets, citing specific examples from Nexon’s breakthrough hit, the MapleStory franchise. Keep in mind that Nexon’s MapleStory is a very strong candidate in the free-to-play benchmark category, with over 92 million users worldwide, 6 million of which reside in North America.

“Min Kim will be an exceptional and inspirational keynote speaker for China,” said Meggan Scavio, GDC China event director. “Nexon’s success is proof that there is a market beyond Asia for these types of non-hardcore MMOs. Moreover, the game industry has been taken by storm with Nexon’s microtransaction business model. The Chinese audience stands to gain a tremendous account of firsthand knowledge, anecdotes and advice from Kim to take back to their companies and studios.”

And while most of us primarily know Nexon and Kim from the MapleStory franchise, Nexon was hard at work years before MapleStory’s success. The company is responsible for developing the world first internet quiz game, QPlay, and in 2004 they set a world record with 700,000 concurrent users playing Crazy Arcade BnB. In addition to MapleStory, Nexon is also the firm that developed KartRider, a title that approximately 30 percent of all South Koreans have played at one time or another.

Moving forward, Nexon is in the midst of a portal and marketing revamp that will presented under BlockParty.com. This new portal will feature a total of eight titles on US shores by the end of 2010 which will include Dungeon Fighter Online and Dragon Nest.

Assuming that Min will discuss Nexon’s entire timeline, there’s bound to be many a valuable lesson, and hopefully some highlights and reasoning behind the new revamp of Nexon’s portal offerings. Stay tuned, as the GDC China is just around the corner, and if Austin was any indication of the plethora of gaming industry news covered at the GDC conferences, the China conference might just yield a number of free-to-play/microtransactions supported games highlights.

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MapleStory celebrates 4th year

Friday, May 8th, 2009

In celebration of their upcoming 4th birthday, Nexon America is rolling out the red carpet for loyal fans of one of the very first free-to-play, microtransaction monetized games.  Launched on May 11, 2005, MapleStory quickly became an online legend with it’s groundbreaking social features, unique art style, open world opportunities, and again, unique and innovate method of play vs. monetization.  Worldwide, MapleStory counts over 92 million users, 6 million of whom reside in the US.

But to MapleStory players, it’s not just a game.  It’s gone far beyond just a 2D side scrolling virtual world/game.  One might even say there might be a cult of ‘Story going on, as fans of the game have solidified the title’s place in gaming history through countless blogs, fanboy (and girl) community sites, and videos.  A quick pass through YouTube reveals close to 200,000 video results.

“After four years of service in North America, MapleStory continues to evolve and surprise us all. We are very grateful to our loyal fans and this celebration is for them,” said Min Kim, Nexon America’s Vice President of Marketing. “MapleStory fans have helped create something special and we’re going to reward them with new, exciting content to enjoy throughout the summer and beyond.”

And reward Nexon will.  The new birthday goodies looks like so:

  • Fourth Anniversary Maple Weapons – Monsters will be dropping special anniversary weapons. Or the players can exchange previous anniversary weapons and Maple Leaves for new Fourth Anniversary Weapons, Maple Hats, Maple Shields, Maple Earrings, or Fourth Anniversary Scrolls.
  • Item Upgrades – Maple Hat and Maple Earrings obtained through monsters are upgradable using Maple Leaves. The earrings can be upgraded by completing additional quests.
  • Leveling Up Event – Each time players levels up, they will receive Maple Leaves. The number of Maple Leaves rewarded will vary depending on the level. Higher level players will receive more Maple Leaves.
  • GM Events – The GMs will run special events and summon last year’s anniversary boss, Big Puff Daddy, at random times.
  • Monster Transformations – Any player can transform into one of MapleStory’s monsters for a given period of time.
  • 4 Candle Event – Nexon is giving away 1,200 prizes over 40 days, including in-game items, Nexon Game Cards, digital cameras, iPod Touch and a laptop computer. Players who play for 40 minutes will receive a candle. Once a player has a candle, they can receive up to four pieces of cake for each successive 40 minutes of game play. Players who get four pieces of the cake will have a chance to win.
  • Maple Quiz – Players can take the Maple Quiz. For every question a player gets right, five Maple Leaves and a special cake will be rewarded.

In addition to this content, Nexon has a whole slate of daily events planned.

So if you’ve never given MapleStory a try, or were just looking for the right moment to jump back on the train that started it all, look no further.  MapleStory – a story of how one game could change the entire way we look at the gaming industry.

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Grab your gear soldier – Combat Arms set to storm Europe

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Not just for our trigger pulling friends on the other side of the pond, Nexon’s newest runaway hit: Combat Arms is set to go live tomorrow, December 16th all across Europe.

As we reported back in September, Nexon started European testing with a closed beta back that ran from late October through earlier November, with great success.  Building upon this success, Nexon is going in guns blazing and live as of tomorrow morning.  The new open-beta version of the FPS shooter/team tactics game features a number of new maps, a new One-Man-Army game mode, along with an extended arsenal including new gears and weapons.  The launch will also feature an introductory event that will encourage players to show off their skills on the scope and reward top soldiers with top prizes.

Combat Arms is the newest free-to-play, microtransaction supported title from Korean pioneers, Nexon.  Their rise to fame came via MapleStory, but Combat Arms takes a decided turn and is geared towards fans of the first person shooter genre.  Players experience non-stop battle action in various terrain scenarios and are recruited to battle enemies in multiple game modes.  Retaining all the classic elements of a traditional FPS, Combat Arms ups the ante by providing players with a unique backpack system (similar but not identical to an MMO type backpack) which allows players to carry and combine various attributes of weapons for a customized gaming experience.  For example, attaching a long range scope might be handy while perched on a building top, but an extended magazine might come in quite handy for close room to room combat.

“The FPS genre is traditionally an area for hardcore gamers with a steep learning curve, but Combat Arms takes it to another level, offering a low barrier of entry with its free-to-play offering and low system requirements,” says Sung-Jin Kim, Manager of Europe Business Team at Nexon.

While the game is quick and easy to pick up, don’t be mislead by Kim’s statement, Combat Arms serves up more fast paced action that a rainspout in a downpour.  With, what I can only imagine, true to life action and combat scenarios, Combat Arms will keep you on your toes, and coming back for more.

An in game currency and experience points are rewarded after victories and kills, and contribute to a leveling system.  This in game currency may then be spent on character customization including additional weapons, scopes, silencers, and extended magazines.  Obviously, with a free-to-play title, for a small real money transaction, players can purchase addition in game cash for further customizations.

So here we go Europe: Combat Arms arrives just in time to work out some of that holiday season frustration with your best friends on the field of battle.  And the price alone, is enough to keep any Christmas shopper happy.  Good night and good luck soldiers; see you on the battlefield tomorrow!

Visit Combat Arms Europe at: combatarms.nexoneu.com

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