SEOUL, May 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Games Corp., the gaming unit of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., reported Tuesday its first-quarter net profit rose 54.2 percent on-year to 28.3 billion won (US$22.3 million) thanks to the popularity of its mobile title “Odin Valhalla Rising” and improved cost management. Operating profit spiked 169.7 percent [...]
SEOUL, March 14 (Korea Bizwire) — With Yoon Suk-yeol set to be South Korea’s next President, the nation’s video game industry is reacting with mixed expectations and concerns. During the presidential campaign, Yoon stressed that video games are not diseases, pledging that he would ease regulations to keep abreast with global trends. Accordingly, the video [...]
SEOUL, March. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has increased its stake in NCSOFT Corp. to become the second-largest shareholder, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquired an additional 563,566 shares of the major South Korean online and mobile game developer for around 290 billion won (US$240 million) [...]
SEOUL, March 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Kim Jung-ju, the founder of gaming giant Nexon Co., has died, his company said Tuesday. He was 54. NXC Corp., the holding firm of Nexon, said Kim died in the United States late last month. “Please excuse us that we cannot explain in detail as all of his family [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 15 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean game developers are facing a crisis as their newest games are underperforming, failing to produce a clear blueprint to turn the blockchain industry into a new source of profit. The fourth-quarter operating profits of Krafton Inc., the gaming giant behind the global smash hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” fell [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has made an equity investment worth about 1 trillion won in South Korean game publisher Nexon Co. Some market watchers interpreted this investment as a sign that Tokyo-listed Nexon’s business potential was recognized by the PIF, which [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Krafton Inc., a South Korean gaming giant behind the global smash hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), said Thursday that it has invested US$5.4 million in an Indian sports game developer, Nautilus Mobile. It is Krafton’s first investment in an Indian game development studio. Nautilus is a sports game developer that [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Netmarble Games, a major South Korean mobile game developer and publisher, on Thursday introduced more than 20 new titles with 75 percent of them based on its own intellectual property (IP). “Netmarble is introducing 22 new titles in various genres,” Netmarble co-CEO Kwon Yeong-sik said during a press conference [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean game developer Kakao Games Corp. said Wednesday it has invested US$20 million in U.S.-based independent game developer Frost Giant Studios in line with its efforts to increase its global profile. The game affiliate under Kakao Corp., which operates South Korea’s most-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said it made [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — Krafton Inc., the South Korean gaming giant behind the global smash hit “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” (PUBG), said Monday that it has invested US$5 million in the Indian dating app FRND. The investment into FRND is part of a Series A round of funding worth $6.5 million that includes other investors, [...]