The domestic gaming industry has set extraordinary compensation for popular game developers in the first half of this year, equivalent to that of chief executive officers (CEOs) or group owners.
According to the semi-annual report released by major game companies on the 14th, Jang Tae-seok, the general producer of KRAFTON's "PUBG: Battlegrounds" intellectual property (IP), received a total compensation of 5.735 billion won, including a salary of approximately 430 million won and bonuses of 5.3 billion won, ranking first among game companies.
Jang is a crucial figure overseeing the overall development of the PUBG series, KRAFTON's representative work and cash cow, and is regarded as the 'right-hand man' of current CEO Kim Chang-han since the days of Zeno Games. During the same period, CEO Kim Chang-han and chief financial officer (CFO) Bae Dong-geun received approximately 3.9 billion won and 3.5 billion won, respectively. Kim Sang-kyun, head of the PUBG PC and console development team, and Director Kim Tae-hyun received 2.8 billion won and 2.4 billion won, respectively.
NEXON GAMES also set a compensation of 1.15 billion won for PD Lee Beom-jun, who oversaw the development of 'The First Descendant,' which achieved significant results last year. Released in July last year, The First Descendant recorded a peak concurrent user count of 265,000 on PC only at its launch, opening a new chapter in NEXON's live service game history. During the same period, Park Yong-hyun, the representative of NEXON GAMES, received about 700 million won.
Netmarble also paid a compensation of 1.585 billion won to Kwon Young-sik, the head of Netmarble Neo, who led the hit 'Solo Leveling: Arise' series development last year. This amount exceeds what Bang Jun-hyuk, chairman of Netmarble and Coway, received during the same period, which was 1.262 billion won.
NEOWIZ also provided substantial compensation to Deputy Minister Park Sung-jun (628 million won) and Deputy Minister Choi Ji-won (584 million won) who successfully led the story expansion DLC for 'Lies of P' released in 2023, matching the compensation of co-CEO Kim Seung-cheol (585 million won).
SHIFT UP set an extraordinary compensation of 2.659 billion won for Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Min Kyung-rip, who led the performances of 'Stella Blade' and 'Goddess of Victory: Nikke.' Director Yoon Hyeong-seok, who drove the long-term popularity of 'Nikke,' also received 538 million won.
Meanwhile, since last year, NCSOFT, which has focused on restructuring through spin-offs and voluntary retirement, has seen a notable decrease in the compensation of its founder, CEO Kim Taek-jin. In the first half of this year, CEO Kim received about 1.98 billion won, a decrease to 15% of the 13.3 billion won he received in the first half of 2020. His compensation in the first half has continuously decreased from 9.44 billion won in 2021, 5.77 billion won in 2022, 2.64 billion won in 2023, to 2.29 billion won in 2024. Co-CEO Park Byeong-mu received approximately 1 billion won in the first half of this year.