Netmarble
South Korean mobile game developer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Netmarble Corp. (Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean game developer and publisher, which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk.[5]
 | |
Native name | 넷마블 주식회사 |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| KRX: 251270 | |
| Industry | Video game, mobile game |
| Founded | March 1, 2000 |
| Founder | Bang Jun-hyuk |
| Headquarters | Guro District, Seoul, South Korea |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Bang Jun-hyuk (Chairman) Park Sean (CEO)[1] |
| Revenue | ₩2,663.8 billion (2024)[2] ₩2,502.1 billion (2023) |
| ₩215.6 billion (2024)[2] ₩-68.5 billion (2023) | |
| ₩6.3 billion (2024)[2] ₩303.9 billion (2023) | |
| Total assets | ₩8,179.1 billion (2024)[2] ₩7,915.9 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | ₩5,475.7 billion (2024)[2] ₩5,079.1 billion (2023) |
| Owner |
|
Number of employees | 3,000 non-consolidated in Korea (2016)[4] |
| Subsidiaries | Kabam Kung Fu Factory Jam City, Inc. Ludia SpinX Games Netmarble Japan Inc. Netmarble Hong Kong Limited Netmarble Thailand Co, Ltd Digipark Singapore PTE, LTD. |
| Website | |
History
Summarize
Perspective
Netmarble has its origins in the video game developer Ipopsoft (아이팝소프트). Around the late 1990s, that company was in crisis. As an outsider, Bang Jun-hyuk helped locate investors to support the company. After the company again went into crisis, Bang took over the company as CEO and reorganized it into Netmarble.[6][7]
The company saw initial early successes. These caught the attention of CJ Group, which agreed to acquire it in 2004.[8][9] Bang stepped down for health concerns in 2006, but rejoined the company after five years after it went into crisis. He then focused the company on the mobile gaming market.[9]
Netmarble developed Lineage 2: Revolution in 2015 and released to the public that same year. As of 2019 L2R became one of the highest-grossing mobiles in the market; exceeding 924 million dollars in 11 months since its release. Currently, Netmarble continues to update and bring new content to L2R.
Netmarble produces role-playing mobile games. As of 2015, it had more than 3,000 employees and served over 120 countries worldwide. In May 2017, Bang took the company public, raising $2.4 billion.[5]
Netmarble has developed mobile games including Seven Knights, Raven (Evilbane in the U.S.) and Everybody's Marble. It also claims a large shareholder stake in SGN, a casual game developer, and has a strategic partnership with CJ ENM.[10]
Since 2015, the company has licensed Disney-owned properties to produce games such as Marvel: Future Fight (2015),[11] Disney Magical Dice (2016),[12] and Star Wars: Force Arena (2017).[13][14][15][16]
In 2017, Netmarble acquired North American interactive entertainment company Kabam.[17]
In 2018, Netmarble named Park Sean as its new CEO. Park, the former chief strategy officer of the operator of KakaoTalk, co-headed Netmarble with incumbent chief Kwon Young-sik.[1]
In April 2018, Netmarble acquired 25.71% in Big Hit Entertainment, the agency of Korean boy group BTS and TXT, becoming its second largest shareholder.[18] As of 2021, Netmarble owns 19.31% of the Big Hit Entertainment after it changed its name to HYBE Corporation[19]
Netmarble and Disney's partnership significantly deteriorated near the end of 2018 when the former announced that it can no longer support Disney Magical Dice and Star Wars: Force Arena, and eventually shut down both games,[citation needed] leaving Future Fight as the only Disney-based game it supported.
In February 2021, the company acquired Los Angeles based developer Kung Fu Factory.[20]
On August 20, 2021, the company established a subsidiary label known as Metaverse Entertainment which partnered up with Kakao Entertainment to manage musical artists.[21] Five days later, Kabam released a sequel to Future Fight, titled Marvel Future Revolution, which was an ambitious online open-world superhero action RPG that ran on Unreal Engine 4, employed several notable voice actors and offered a more cinematic presentation. On January 25, 2023, the label debuted a virtual girl-group known as Mave:.[22]
As of 2021, Netmarble shareholders consisted of Bang Jun-hyuk (24.12%), CJ ENM (21.78%), Tencent (Han River Investment Pte. Ltd.) (17.52%), NCsoft Corp. (6.8%) and Others (29.78%).[23]
Following the poor performance of Marvel Future Revolution, Netmarble announced in June 2023 that the game would shut down on August 25, 2023.[24] On January 19, 2024, Netmarble shut down its metaverse subsidiary, laying off 70 employees.[25]
Games
| Year | Title | Developer | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | GunZ: The Duel | MAIET Entertainment | Netmarble | Publisher in Korea only |
| Grand Chase | KOG Studios | Netmarble | One of many publishers | |
| 2007 | SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online | Softmax | Netmarble | |
| 2008 | Uncharted Waters Online | Koei Tecmo | Netmarble | Publisher in North America and Europe only |
| Prius Online | CJI | Netmarble | ||
| 2012 | Scarlet Blade | Liveplex | Netmarble | |
| District 187: Sin Streets | Netmarble | Netmarble | ||
| 2014 | Seven Knights | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble | |
| 2015 | Marvel Future Fight | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | |
| 2016 | Lineage 2: Revolution | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | |
| Knights Chronicle | Netmarble | Netmarble | Initially Japan only; released globally in June 2018;[26] shut down on July 4, 2023[27] | |
| 2017 | Star Wars: Force Arena | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | Shut down on January 12, 2019 |
| Arena of Valor | TiMi Studio Group | Netmarble | Publisher only in Korea | |
| 2018 | Jackpot World | SpinX Games | SpinX Games | SpinX Games was acquired by Netmarble in August 2021. |
| The King of Fighters All Star | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | Shut down on October 30, 2024 | |
| BTS World | Takeone Company Corp | Netmarble | ||
| 2020 | Seven Knights 2 | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble | |
| Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross | Netmarble F&C | Netmarble | ||
| 2021 | Marvel Future Revolution | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | Shut down on August, 25th 2023. |
| 2022 | Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | |
| 2023 | Paragon: The Overprime | Netmarble F&C | Netmarble | |
| Tower of God: New World | Netmarble | Netmarble | In all countries on July 27, 2023 | |
| 2024 | Solo Leveling: Arise | Netmarble | Netmarble | |
| 2025 | Game of Thrones: Kingsroad[28] | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | |
| TBA | RF Project | Netmarble | Netmarble | |
| Shangri-La Frontier | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble |
Investments
Although Netmarble is a game company, Netmarble is known for investing in other companies. The exchange rate is based on the time of the investment was made.
| Investment year | Investment Target | Investment Amount | Equity Stake | Current Stake | Current Value | Remarks |
| 2015 | Jam City | $128M[29] | 60.00%[29] | 60.00% | $720M[30] | Acquired U.S. mobile game developer |
| 2016 | KakaoBank | ₩91.7B($79M)[31] | 3.74% | 0.00% | N/A | Sold full stake in 2021, profit of ₩1,076B($940M)[31] |
| 2017 | Kabam | $800M[32] | 100.00% | 100.00% | N/A | Acquired North American mobile game developer |
| 2018 | Kakao Games | ₩50B($46M)[31] | 4.40% | 0.00% | N/A | Sold full stake in 2021, profit of ₩237B($207M)[31] |
| Hybe | ₩201.4B($186M)[33] | 25.71%[33] | 9.4% | ₩983B($676M) | Sold majority of Stake, profit of ₩743B($560M)[34][35] | |
| 2020 | Coway | ₩1.740T($1.47B)[36] | 25.51%[36] | 25.51% | ₩1.6T($1.1B) | Earned dividends of ₩143B($100M) past 5 years[citation needed] |
| 2021 | SpinX | $2.19B[37] | 100%[37] | 100% | N/A | Acquired 3rd largest social casino game company |
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.