Neople is investing $5.64 million (6 billion KRW) into THINGSOFT, which will accelerate its process of developing and operating new work.
According to Nexon, Neople participated in THINGSOFT’s recapitalization that was worth $6.20 million (6.6 billion KRW) at the end of February. It will invest total of 20,000 stocks, which costs $311 (331,000 KRW) per stock. Neople invested $43 million (45.7 billion KRW) into THINGSOFT in total with this recapitalization. “Neople’s investment will be used for development and operation of new work.” said a representative for Nexon.
THINGSOFT is a 100% subsidiary of Neople, which is a 100% subsidiary of Nexon Korea.
THINGSOFT is a development group that is led by Vice-President Jung Sang-won of Nexon Korea. It was established in 2005 and it has emerged as one of the top development group out of South Korean game industries by successfully developing ‘FIFA Online’ series.
After THINGSOFT was merged with Neowiz, Neowiz established a company with a same name when main developers resigned after 2010. Afterwards, Neople secured THINGSOFT’s shares and incorporated THINGSOFT as its subsidiary.
Vice-President Jung also holds the president title of THINGSOFT, which is currently developing several types of new work including ‘Peria Chronicles’. THINGSOFT is responsible for PC online games that require large-scale fund and manpower.
Peria Chronicles is a PC MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that started being developed by THINGSOFT since 2012. It has drawn huge amount of interests from gamers due to its high degree of freedom and strong characteristics.
This games brings the concept of having users freely change geographic features and rules of the game to the forefront. It is applied with Nexon’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) and intelligent technologies that allow NPC (Non-Player Character) automatically create missions for example.
It is heard that THINGSOFT has also been developing a sequel to ‘Dungeon & Fighter’. THINGSOFT recruited developers last year under a project name called ‘Project Knock’. This new game is a high-quality PC online game that is based on Unreal Engine 3 and is practically seen as a sequel to Dungeon & Fighter as it is based on side-view method.
Dungeon & Fighter was developed by Neople and it is Nexon’s best game that draws billions of dollars annually ever since it was released in China in late 2000s through Tencent. In 2017 alone, Neople made $940 million (1 trillion KRW) in sales just from Dungeon & Fighter.
Staff Reporter Kim, Siso | siso@etnews.com