Nexon
More info
- Creator
- Kim Jung-ju
- Released
- 1994
- Type
- Game developer and publisher
A South Korean games company that was early to graphical online games and all but invented free-to-play with paid items.
Kim Jung-ju founded Nexon in Seoul in 1994, and two years later it released Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, one of the first graphical MMO games – years before EverQuest and well before World of Warcraft. Around the turn of the millennium Nexon started letting people play for free and selling clothes and items for their avatars instead, a model the West initially treated as a curiosity.
MapleStory (2003) became its big international export. In 2011 Nexon listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where its headquarters now sit. It also owns Embark Studios in Stockholm, founded by Patrick Söderlund after his years at EA.