NCSOFT defined 2026 as a year to create new change through growth and innovation, and announced a strategy to foster shooting, subculture, and mobile casual genres as next-generation growth pillars.
According to NCSOFT, co-CEOs Kim Taek-jin and Park Byung-moo said in a New Year's message shared with employees on the 7th that "2026 will be a year of creating new change through growth and innovation," presenting this management direction.
The two CEOs mentioned "AION2," released in Nov. last year, and called it "a project that brought us very important and new momentum for change." They added, "Through ongoing efforts to stabilize service and sincere communication with users, we were able to rebuild trust and confirmed that NCSOFT's core IP still has competitiveness and potential."
NCSOFT presented "growth" and "innovation" as the core keywords for 2026. The company said, "Growth means further strengthening and expanding our current competitiveness to raise corporate value, and innovation means looking at everything from a zero base and achieving a completely new leap."
Regarding the growth strategy, the two CEOs said, "We will continue to expand the potential of the legacy IP that has built today's NCSOFT, and connect the accumulated asset to future growth through spinoff games and external collaboration," adding, "We will also focus our capabilities on completing new core IP."
For the new genre strategy, they put shooting and subculture genres at the forefront. The two CEOs said, "We are building new competitiveness through collaboration with external studios that have differentiated capabilities," and emphasized, "Based on our accumulated know-how, we will continue publishing investments and expand clusters in various genres, including shooting and action RPG."
As for the mobile casual sector, they said, "We will establish the mobile casual center, newly created last year, as a new growth engine and steadily develop it through talent acquisition, stronger data analysis capabilities, and additional mergers and acquisitions (M&A)."
On innovation, they called for broad changes in organizational culture and work methods. The two CEOs said, "It is time to establish a mindset of 'innovation' that does not remain with existing methods but reexamines work and processes from a fundamental perspective and connects them to change," adding, "We aim to build a culture where all employees reconsider their work from a zero base and pursue the best choices and decisions."
They added, "Management will take responsibility for presenting a clear direction in the process of change and minimizing uncertainty," and said, "We will listen to employees' voices during the process and coordinate together."