Korea's leading game companies are speeding up efforts to expand popular game intellectual property (IP) and find future growth engines. As the industry landscape has shifted from the old "3N (Nexon, Netmarble, NCSOFT)" framework to an "NK (Nexon, Krafton)" system with a heavy overseas focus, game companies are working to reshape themselves to maximize results in the global market. To that end, they are pushing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and shedding noncore businesses, strengthening a "selection and concentration" strategy, according to analysts.
◇ NCSOFT points to "mobile casual," targets overseas markets
On the 26th, the industry said NCSOFT acquired "Lihuhu," a Vietnam-based casual game specialist developer this month. NCSOFT invested $103.85 million (about 153.4 billion won) in Indygo Group, Lihuhu's Singapore-based parent, to secure 67% equity. It also bought domestic mobile casual studio Springcomes.
NCSOFT said it will use this acquisition as a starting point to build a "mobile casual game business" into a pillar of new growth. The move is seen as part of a diversification strategy to break away from a business structure centered on "Lineage," its flagship cash cow, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Earlier, in August this year, NCSOFT created a dedicated "mobile casual center" to oversee the mobile casual business and brought in Anel Cheman—who helped several mobile game unicorns grow, including Tripledot Studios and Outfit7—as head of the center, preparing for expansion of the related business.
Chief Executive Kim Taek-jin of NCSOFT said at "G-STAR 2025," the country's largest game show last month, that the era in which a few blockbusters dominate the market is over, signaling a break from a "Lineage"-centric business structure. "We will refract the essence of MMORPGs from a new angle and make games with our own color across various genres such as shooting, action, and subculture," Kim said.
Mobile casual games are easy to control and can be enjoyed lightly in a short time, making for a low barrier to entry. The genre is popular not only in advanced markets such as North America and Europe but also in emerging markets where lower-spec smartphones are common. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA)'s "2025 game user survey" report, in Korea as well, 36.8% of mobile game users picked casual games such as puzzles and quizzes as their favorite genre, ranking first ahead of shooting (24.4%) and action/MMORPG (23.3%).
Industry watchers interpret NCSOFT, known as the "MMORPG master," as moving to strengthen overseas operations and diversify its portfolio by putting the mobile casual genre at the forefront. As of the third quarter this year, NCSOFT's revenue by region was led by Korea at 60%, with Asia at 18.75% and North America and Europe at 7.78%. By title, the "Lineage" IP accounted for 56% of total revenue with PC games alone, and the share is estimated to exceed 60% when including mobile games.
Co-CEO Park Byung-moo of NCSOFT said, "We are additionally reviewing the acquisition of a European mobile casual studio, and we are in talks with multiple casual game studios to expand into the casual publishing (distribution) business."
At the same time, the company proceeded with restructuring, decisively winding down games with deteriorating profitability. As part of that, NCSOFT announced the end of service for the mobile MMORPG "Blade & Soul 2" and the collection RPG "Blade & Soul Heroes."
◇ Nexon brands its IP, Krafton increases investment in India
Nexon plans to focus on branding its long-running game IP. Early this month, Nexon established a new development subsidiary, Dilloquest. A 100% subsidiary of Nexon Korea, Dilloquest will push new titles based on a deep understanding of Nexon's IP. The company plans to expand its development team through open hiring next year and begin full-scale game development.
This year, Nexon scored back-to-back hits with games based on IP more than 20 years old, including "Mabinogi Mobile" and "Maple Grow," and is seen as having set up Dilloquest to accelerate franchising—turning popular IP into giant brands. Dilloquest is also expected to handle the sequel to "The Kingdom of the Winds," Nexon's first title and longest-running IP. In parallel, Nexon moved to clean up underperforming businesses, deciding to liquidate Nitro Studio, the developer of "KartRider: Drift." It also ended service for "SuperVibe," the battle royale game from subsidiary Theorycraft that fell short of expectations.
Krafton has also continued M&A this year to reduce reliance on the long-running hit "Battlegrounds" IP and to find future growth engines. In June this year, it acquired "BCJ-31," the parent of Japan's full-service advertising company ADK Group, for 710.3 billion won, and in July it bought U.S.-based Eleventh Hour Games, developer of the action RPG "Last Epoch," for 132.4 billion won.
Krafton derives more than 90% of its revenue overseas and plans to actively invest in India, its fastest-growing market. Krafton's India unit has said it will invest at least $50 million (about 71.5 billion won) annually. Previously, Krafton invested in a range of Indian startups—not only promising game developers but also the audio platform KukuFM and Fintech company Cashfree Payments. As an extension of this strategy, it recently joined hands with Naver and Mirae Asset to create the "Unicorn Growth Fund," an investment fund of up to 1 trillion won.
A company official said, "We created the fund to discover sustainable businesses in India that generate social and economic value beyond games," and added it will continue aggressive M&A next year.