​

About a year after announcing their intention to invest $1.5 billion in entertainment companies, South Korean game publisher Nexon has disclosed significant investments in four major corporations in the entertainment industry: Hasbro, Namco Bandai, Konami, and Sega. By the end of 2020, Nexon had invested about 58% of their allotted funds, $874 million, spread out among their various investments; only those four companies were specifically mentioned in the press release, as other investments did not meet their disclosure threshold. Nexon has emphasized that these are "long-term friendly investments with no intention of acquisition or activism," and that they were chosen for investment due to their ability to develop and sustain globally-recognized intellectual property. “We believe companies with strong, well-managed global IP are often overlooked and undervalued in a market that is narrowly focused on introductions of new IP,” said Owen Mahoney, President and CEO of Nexon.

Nexon is a game publisher founded in South Korea, currently run out of Tokyo. It mainly deals in online games for PC and mobile, mostly in Asian markets, including MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online. It also helps maintain Final Fantasy XIV in Korea in conjunction with Square Enix.

Source

 

[Xzi]

Man I don't care for the trend of primarily-mobile publishers buying up so much ownership of other publishers/developers, but at least they aren't Tencent. Also one of these things is not like the others, Konami is all about gambling these days.

 

[ertaboy356b]

That's a lot of pay2win money there.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Man I don't care for the trend of primarily-mobile publishers buying up so much ownership of other publishers/developers, but at least they aren't Tencent. Also one of these things is not like the others, Konami is all about gambling these days.

Oof, a mobile game publisher?

 

[BitMasterPlus]

Interesting business decision. Although I haven't heard of this game company before, might look into what games they made.

 

[ken28]

Interesting business decision. Although I haven't heard of this game company before, might look into what games they made.

The most notable is probable maple story

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Investing in Konami? You should invest in Kojima so he can buy metal gear IP back from Konami.

Also isn't Hasbro an american toy company?

 

[Deleted User]

If the winning formula is to create Added Value from Pay to Win, then the obvious first focus will be on KONAMI's Winning Eleven Mobile Game, otherwise known as eFootball PES, the latest iteration being 2021.

Half expecting to see more Official Leagues and Teams get on board this franchise now with the added investment.

There was a time when I thought Winning Eleven would beat FIFA, more so because they had less clout to purchase Official Licenses so the hope was more focus on great balance of authentic football and arcade gameplay.

The Business Model spoke otherwise and Surprise Mechanics is how the industry condones Child Gambling these days.

 

[hippy dave]

They seriously just gonna yoink Pixar's lamp like that?

 

[raxadian]

Man I don't care for the trend of primarily-mobile publishers buying up so much ownership of other publishers/developers, but at least they aren't Tencent. Also one of these things is not like the others, Konami is all about gambling these days.

They still sell ports of their old games.

 

[Xzi]

Also isn't Hasbro an american toy company?

They own the rights to a lot of board games, which have mobile, PC, and console iterations of course.

 

[Daimakaimura]

So that's about it then, Microsoft taking over Sega.... to bad...
should have been way better than this

 

[xatzimi]

Why do China Japan and Korea invest so heavily into mobile games that give them this sort of money to throw around?
At least it isn't Tencent, though

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

They own the rights to a lot of board games, which have mobile, PC, and console iterations of course.

That's like wanting to own Uno and Monopoly.

I thought they wanted the toys. Or whatever to sell to overseas market.

 

[Xzi]

That's like wanting to own Uno and Monopoly.

I thought they wanted the toys. Or whatever to sell to overseas market.

Eh it's not too worrisome until they get closer to a majority stake in any of these companies. $874 million sounds like a lot, but spread out over all these investments they might've got ten to twenty percent of each.

 

[Maplestory]

The most notable is probable maple story

Agreed.

In 2020, MapleStory saw revenues jump 98% in Korea year-over-year and 134% in North America and Europe. The game has been running since 2003, and lifetime revenues have surpassed $3 billion.

Source: w w w . gamesindustry. biz/articles/2021-02-09-maple-story-and-mobile-expansion-push-nexon-to-record-revenues

 

[eyeliner]

This was/is the publisher of Atlantica Online. Damn that game was aggressive in wanting your money.
After they got a team on board, every 20 seconds there were sales pitches on the chat.
Onentime, I asked her to stop spamming, and she called me with my handle in the middle of the screen to everybody.
I've got a few messages of player agreeing with me.

Weird times.

 

[64bitmodels]

i remember playing maplestory, i liked it for a while but eventually it became too grindy for me
the visuals and music were really great though

 

[Cubuss]

they should bring maplestory to Nintendo switch,

 

[HideoKojima]

Good investment