Nexters CEO Jang Hyun-guk to Launch CROSS Testnet Next Month and Pursue M&A

In early this year, Jang Hyun-guk, who was appointed CEO of Nexters (formerly Action Square), noted that "on the 1st of next month, we will launch the blockchain mainnet 'CROSS' in a testnet format and unveil the cryptocurrency wallet 'CROSSX'."

After the regular shareholders' meeting held at Tech 1 Tower in Pangyo, Seongnam, on the 28th, Jang said during a shareholder meeting, "What I reflected on from the previous project (WEMIX) is that we released too many applications (apps)." He explained, "All services of CROSS will be included within the 'CROSSX' app, and even if we expand into other areas based on games, it will be done based on this app."

Jang also expressed the view that blockchain-based games should move towards a subscription-based revenue model rather than a probability-based item revenue model (BM). He stated, "The first game is 'Ragnarok: Monster World'. Although we originally planned to sell the core item, cards, through a paid gacha (lottery), players will be able to obtain them using in-game currency. However, to tokenize them for trading, we plan to require the purchase of subscription products like battle passes."

Nexters held a shareholders' meeting that day, passing resolutions to appoint Park Jang-ho, a legal advisor at the law firm Hwawoo, Jo Hong-bin, a partner at Hanwha Accounting Corporation, Ji Chang-hoon, a director at Shinwoo Accounting Corporation, and Jung Soo-jin, CEO of Witness Creative Partners, as outside directors. Jang explained that he believes a governance structure suitable for the gaming industry is the American-style governance that maximizes shareholders' interests and that he organized the board of directors centered on outside directors to ensure that outsiders monitor the company's performance.

Regarding the damage to shareholder value caused by the hacking incident of the cryptocurrency 'WEMIX' while he was at Wemade in the past, Jang explained, "In principle, blockchain itself is unhackable, but hacking can occur at connected centralized exchanges or points of contact with users," adding that the recent hacking incident related to WEMIX was likely a human error due to the leakage of personal keys.

He continued, "CROSS has made efforts to reduce the possibility of hacking through channels other than blockchain," emphasizing that they introduced traditional financial security measures, such as delaying large transactions by 24 hours or blocking abnormal remittances made multiple times.

He also revealed plans to secure good gaming intellectual properties (IPs) through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Jang explained, "Although Nexters' main business is a blockchain game platform, securing good games is an important task as well," noting that if there are corporations making games suitable for blockchain, they will actively secure them through M&A.

Plans to establish branches in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China were also mentioned. Jang stated, "The China branch has already been established, and the UAE branch in Dubai is in progress, which will likely be reflected in the next business report."