Pearl Abyss acquired a game server and network engine provider called Nettention.
According to Pearl Abyss and gaming industries on the 19th, Pearl Abyss recently finished acquiring Nettention. This deal has Pearl Abyss acquiring 100% of Nettention’s shares and it is likely that this deal will increase business value of Pearl Abyss which is looking to becoming a listed company.
Nettention is a company that developed and is operating its game server engine called ProudNet. After its establishment in 2008, it secured not only large-scale online games but also servers and network engine technologies that are used for mobile games. Its strength is its ability to process large amount of data between a client and a server and between a client and a client.
Major function of ProundNet is its ability to remove any disconnection that occurs due to instable servers and bug problems. It is a solution that is optimized for MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). It allows more than 10,000 people to connect to a server at the same time without using P2P network.
As of July, about 250 online and mobile games such as ‘Seven Knights’ are using Nettention’s solution.
Pearl Abyss is a company that developed an online MMORPG called ‘Black Desert’. Veteran MMORPG developers who are in their 30s with PD Kim Dae-il, who developed ‘C9’, at the center are at the core of this company.
Black Desert has become very popular in South Korea, North America, and Europe since 2016. With popularity of Black Desert as the foundation, Pearl Abyss was able to make $30.0 million (33.7 billion KRW) and $23.9 million (26.9 billion KRW) in sales and operating profit respectively during first half of last year.
Pearl Abyss is looking to become a listed company during second half of this year and it passed a preliminary evaluation from KOSDAQ in July. Stock market is estimating that market capitalization of Pearl Abyss will surpass $890 million (1 trillion KRW).
There is a high chance that KOSDAQ will be the biggest fish of KOSDAQ during second half of this year. It received high scores from the fact that it is a company with games that are very popular in foreign markets. Its games will become cornerstones for Pearl Abyss in developing contents that are popular globally in the future.
Pearl Abyss is developing mobile MMORPG called ‘Black Desert Mobile (tentative name)’ that is based on Black Desert and is looking to launch it by end of this year. It is expected that its business value will go up by acquiring Nettention that has technical skills in servers. Although Pearl Abyss has had strategic partnership with Nettention, it is likely that synergy between two companies will grow as employees from Nettention will be directly participating in development of games.
Expectations towards Black Desert are also high as mobile MMORPG such as ‘Lineage 2 Revolution’ and ‘Lineage M’ were successful one after the other. It is heard that many large publishers are already showing interest towards launching of Black Desert Mobile. Pearl Abyss is currently reviewing whether it will launch Black Desert Mobile on its own or through a large publisher.
Staff Reporter Kim, Siso | siso@etnews.com