min-kim posts

Nexon MMOs not coming to Mac or consoles any time soon

by Eliot Lefebvre Mar 15th 2010 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MapleStory, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Consoles, Mac, Vindictus, Dragon Nest

There's been quite a bit of talk coming out of Nexon from the time of the GDC -- revealing two games, more news on the venerable MapleStory, and even a developer initiative announced shortly before the conference. But if you were waiting for the other shoe to drop, there is one after a fashion, because the company still has no plans to develop anything for the Mac or for consoles. Both Vindictus and Dragon Nest are apparently popular choices for players to request on consoles, but according to Nexon America vice president Min Kim, neither one is planned for development for the console platform.

Kim went on to explain that his company's base of operations in Korea meant that Mac support was a distant afterthought at best -- the market for non-PC games in Korea is minimal. Of course, in both cases he said that the support is something they would like to expand to eventually, but for now there's just not enough reason to expand. Which is sad news if you're one of the many users who prefer a fruit-based computer, especially with more and more games expanding to be playable on any platform.

[Thanks Tracey!]

Tags: console-mmo, consoles, development, development-plans, dragon-nest, gdc-2010, korea, mac, mac-mmo, maplestory, min-kim, nexon, nexon-america, vindictus

GDC10: Dragon Nest hands-on

by Justin Olivetti Mar 15th 2010 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Dragon Nest

Ever since the Diablo franchise hit it big with gamers across the world, competing companies have attempted to replicate Blizzard's addictive click-and-loot gameplay with varying degrees of success. There's just something satisfying on a primal level when you wipe out entire armies of monsters with a mere 2,142 mouse clicks. Mega-MMO publisher Nexon (Mabinogi, Dungeon Fighter Online) is bringing over another contender in Dragon Nest, a fast and furious dungeon crawler (minus the Vin Diesel, unfortunately).

At GDC 2010, we were fortunate enough to nab a hands-on with Dragon Nest, a title could almost be considered a sibling of Nexon's Vindictus. Both games are action-oriented, twitch-based and include cutting through swaths of enemies for the glory of your inventory. However, while Vindictus is serious in tone and looks, Dragon Nest goes for a "cuter" feel. In markets where Dragon Nest and Vindictus exist simultaneously, such as Korea, each can co-exist peacefully while not undercutting one another.

Of course, Dragon Nest is more than a cute face and a mouse waiting to be worn out -- hit the jump after the gallery to chew through this colorful game with us.

Gallery: GDC10: Dragon Nest

Tags: action-rpg, diablo, dragon-nest, GDC, gdc-2010, hands-on, min-kim, Nexon, phantasy-star-online, vindictus

GDC10: Nexon's Vindictus revealed

by Beau Hindman Mar 12th 2010 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Galleries, Screenshots, Trailers, Video, New titles, Vindictus

I'll admit to being somewhat of a Nexon fanboy, and someone that considers them to be in the toy business rather than in the MMO business. They manufacture joy in my eyes. Bright, shiny joy. But the recent announcement of their new title "Vindictus" shows us a game that we are not used to seeing from Nexon. While it will follow the same business model that other Nexon games do, it promises to be a "sexy" game: a game that will make players feel like a hero. It promises to be more of an action game, or as Nexon America's Vice President Min Kim put it when he sat down with us for an interview, "an mmoACTIONrpg, epic, fierce and intense."

Want to know more? Want to see the killer trailer? Join us after the jump.

Gallery: GDC10: Vindictus

Tags: action, action-mmo, featured, free-to-play, ftp, gdc-2010, mabinogi, min-kim, Nexon, physics, source, source-engine, vindictus

GDC China 09: Social evolution and Eastern vs. Western dynamics

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 14th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Business models, Culture, MMO industry, News items

Yesterday was the for the Game Developer's Conference in China, and one of the highlights included a speech given by Nexon America's vice-president Min Kim on Nexon's entry into the Western market and a call for more Chinese developers to make the leap across the ocean.

Kim, who was born and raised in New York City and took frequent trips to visit his grandparents in South Korea, sees a connection between the gaming cultures on both sides of the ocean. His speech cited the original links between the American and Asian markets when it came to arcade culture, but how both sides began to diverge when console video games rose to power in American and Japan but not in mainland Asia.

Kim's speech also goes into Nexon's first steps into the American market, the rise of social gaming, and Kim's interest in what he calls the "Penguin Army" -- the gamers who will soon out grow Club Penguin and move on to other games. For the full notes on his speech, check out the story over at Gamasutra.

Tags: arcade-culture, asian-market, consoles, gdc-china, gdc-china-2009, min-kim, nexon, penguin-army, social-games, vice-president, western-market

Nexon revenues are up, largely driven by MapleStory

by James Egan Aug 23rd 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, MMO industry, Free-to-play, Kids

One of the most successful companies operating in the free-to-play games arena is Nexon, which reported their July revenues are up 35 percent year-on-year, according to Worlds In Motion. Much of this good fortune can be attributed to MapleStory, which set a new max concurrent user record of over 70,000 users last month. While the number of registered users in a free-to-play MMO doesn't tell the whole story, Nexon recently announced MapleStory has 92 million registered users worldwide, six million of which are in North America.

Nexon America VP of Marketing Min Kim was quoted by Worlds in Motion about the company's plans for North America. Kim said, "We're heavily investing on all fronts -- in our games, our publishing platform, aggressive marketing efforts as well as customer service. The best news for Nexon America is that our success isn't just reflected in registered users, but in actual, dramatic revenue growth."

Tags: f2p, free-to-play, maplestory, min-kim, mmo-industry, nexon, nexon-america, north-america, registered-users, worlds-in-motion

Nexon permanently increases the rate of experience gain in MapleStory

by William Dobson Aug 4th 2009 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, Game mechanics, Patches, Leveling, News items, PvE, Free-to-play

One of the downsides of an ever-expanding game is the time it takes a new player to "catch up" to the majority of the player-base. Most people are kicking it in some groovy expansion while others might be stuck on old long-abandoned content. Nexon has identified the need to speed their players through certain areas of MapleStory and has taken one of the more common routes to do so: they have announced that the game's experience curve has been boosted. Players from level 11-30 will get experience 50% faster than before. From 31-200 the bonus is decreased slightly, down to a still-significant 25%.

The temporary experience boosts that were granted for recent events were apparently received very well by MapleStory players, and this approval is what led to the permanent increase. Nexon America's VP of Marketing Min Kim helped to make the announcement: "The world of MapleStory is considerably larger than when it was first released. Accelerating the EXP rates empowers old and new users alike to better explore the MapleWorld." The new exp curve is already in effect, so what are you waiting for? Go level a Cygnus Knight!

Tags: exp, experience, experience-curve, experience-gain, leveling, maplestory, min-kim, nexon

Blizzard vets form new mobile MMO company

by Shawn Schuster May 1st 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, Mobile

At this point, we're beginning to think there are more former Blizzard employees than current Blizzard employees -- and they all form their own companies! The newish Silicon Valley startup, entitled Booyah, was recently announced earlier this year from ex-Blizzard vets Keith Lee, Brian Morrisroe and Sam Christiansen. This company aims to create what they're calling a "playful life companion", marrying the qualities of an MMO, social network sites and Apple's iPhone. This new project aims for a public unveiling in late Spring of 2009. So... like a month?

What makes this project extra interesting is the fact that Booyah's advisory board consists of Blizzard's executive vice president of game design, Rob Pardo, and vice president of marketing for Nexon, Min Kim. Ok, now we're ready to take this project a bit more seriously. "We were immediately compelled by the promise of Booyah and the background of the founders," said Matt Murphy, one of the investment partners at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who recently gave Booyah $4.5 million in Series A financing. "The iFund was created to help build the most promising and innovative businesses that utilize the discrete capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch. Booyah is a terrific example."

Tags: blizzard, booyah, iphone, min-kim, mobile, rob-pardo

AGDC08: Why 'free to play' doesn't mean free or easy money

by Michael Zenke Sep 22nd 2008 at 1:30PM

Filed under: MapleStory, Business models, Free-to-play, Massively Event Coverage

Min Kim, the presenter of the talk, subtitled this event "A collection of thoughts on building and launching a Free-to-Play MMO." Kim has been around the world and back talking about his company, Nexon, and the business practice they're leading the charge on. Free to play games are bigger than ever in the MMO space, be they local titles like Runescape or imports like Nexon's own MapleStory.

As Nexon America's VP of Marketing, Kim generally makes for a compelling speaker. Still, it was hard not to be impressed at the specifics and knowledge he brings to a conversation on this topic. Essentially a guide to putting together a free-to-play business model from scratch, Kim's talk centered around hard-won lessons from the front lines.

Read on for details on everything from the benefits of selling to kids at Target, to the dangers and pitfalls of self-publishing a game.

Tags: agdc-2008, featured, free-to-play, joystiqfeatures, maplestory, min-kim, nexon

Free to play pt. 2

by Michael Zenke Sep 22nd 2008 at 1:30PM

Filed under: MapleStory, Business models, Free-to-play, Massively Event Coverage

Live Teams
Launching is something like 10% of the overall effort. Keep your team small to start, grow when you prove your success. Don't keep on working on a second product until your first is growing and successful with its own team. Constantly check the vitals of the project, datamining and understanding what your players like and don't like.

This is a Social Experience
Develop great gameplay focused on social interaction. Encourage establishing identities and tying players to each other.

Free to play gaming isn't complicated math:

Subscription MMOs
Total Revenue = Subscribers * Subscription Cost
Paying Users = Subscribers (100% of Users)

Free to Play
Total Revenue = # of Active users * Paying Rate * average revenue per user (ARPU)
Paying Users = # of Active users * Paying Rate

Financial Upside to FTP MMOs
A minority of players pay, but you're likely reaching something like 10x more players generally. Average revenue per user (ARPU) is variable, with players paying above and below. That's inclusive, meaning players can pay what the game is actually worth to them. Players who don't pay can be monetized in other ways, without item sales. ARPU and paying rate can be greatly varied. Don't go for a crazy ARPU, go for something that's sustainable.

Tags: agdc-2008, free-to-play, maplestory, min-kim, nexon

Austin Game Developers Conference previews the evolving face of MMOs

by Michael Zenke Jul 12th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Events, real-world, Academic

Worlds in Motion has continued to announce some of the highlights of the upcoming Austin Game Developer's Conference. We've previously talked about featured speakers like Nexon's Min Kim, and interesting events showcasing the collaboration between casual gaming and MMOs. These newest events continue to explore some topics we've returned to several times before here at Massively. The business side of massive gaming, for example, will be explored in a panel entitled Evolving Business for MMOs. Speakers will include Turbine Business Development VP Robert Ferrari, CCP CEO Himlar Veigar Pertursson, Funcom Business Development VP Nicolay Nickelsen, Nexon America director Min Kim, and ImaginVenture SA COO Jessica Mulligan.

Other talks will include tips for the changing face of MMO business models, focusing on free-to-play and RMT models. Another will discuss some of the challenges of running a Beta test, with hands-on knowledge from Keneva's Jonathan Hanna. Check out the full listing of MMO-related talks and panels over at the official AGDC website today.

Tags: agdc, agdc08, austin-game-developers-conference, jessica-mulligan, jonathan-hanna, min-kim

Nexon's new western targeted MMOG Sugar Rush in closed beta

by Matt Warner Jun 24th 2008 at 9:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Video, New titles, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Casual, Sugar Rush

Nexon America's Min Kim dropped a hint in late May that an upcoming MMO title was in development in their Vancouver studio. The big secret is Sugar Rush, a new casual based MMO romp and stomp with coin collection mixed into the fray. It is the first MMOG from that studio that is intended specifically for North American audiences. While Sugar Rush is free to play, it will sustain development costs via a microtransaction model "item mall" similar to many other free to play MMOs. The game is currently in closed beta and Nexon America is not accepting applications at this time, but we hear it may launch in the very near future.

The development team working on Sugar Rush is based in Vancouver, Canada and includes former Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios Group vice president and creative director Steve Rechtschaffner, as well as studio Klei Entertainment. Headed by Jamie Cheng, Klei Entertainment previously developed and published Eets, a 2D puzzle game for PCs which was later revamped for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade.

It will be interesting to see how Sugar Rush does in North America. MapleStory is unquestionably highly successful. It put Nexon on the global radar and shocked the naysayers when MapleStory earned 29 million dollars in revenue -- not bad for a free to play MMOG! The whole western and eastern MMOG market juxtaposition is fascinating; many have shunned a lot of eastern games in discussing the western market and vice-versa. A video from the closed beta showcasing game play is after the jump. Let us know what you think.

Tags: casual-games, free-to-play, item-mall, maple-story, microtransaction, min-kim, nexon, nexon-america, pvp, rmt, steve-rechtschaffner, sugar-rush

Austin Game Developer's Conference announces speakers

by Michael Zenke May 31st 2008 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Events, real-world, Academic

This year's Austin Game Developer's Conference, slated for early September, sounds like it will be a good one. Though the ION 2008 event was a fantastic MMO-focused design and development thinktank, AGDC traditionally fills that roll. CMP (the event's organizer) has announced some of the speakers that will be participating in the event. The list includes industry heavyweights like Nexon America's Min Kim, BioWare's Damion Schubert, and Cryptic's Gordon Wei.

We're particularly interested in Mr. Schubert's talk. Last year his Zen of Online Game Design discussion was one of the highlights of the conference, and his discussion for this year sounds equally engaging. Entitled "Endgame: How to Build High-End Gameplay for Your Most Devoted Players", it would seem to be tackling one of the issues that a lot of MMO players find very pressing. Make sure to check out the descriptions of the events, and if you're thinking of going make sure to register soon. Early registration is only open through the end of July. And, of course, you can look forward to extensive coverage from Massively.com; we'll be at the event in force!

Tags: agdc, agdc08, austin-game-developers-conference, damion-schubert, grant-wei, joe-ludwig, min-kim, speakers

An ION 08 interview with Nexon America's Min Kim [Updated]

by Shawn Schuster May 28th 2008 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Betas, MapleStory, Business models, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Casual

In a recent interview at Ten Ton Hammer, Nexon America's Min Kim spoke out about some of the company's plans for upcoming games, including their online FPS entitled Combat Arms which will be entering closed beta next week. He also talks a bit about another upcoming MMO title being produced by their Vancouver studio, but details are still not available.

In addition, Min Kim speaks at great length about some of the existing titles they have have available in Korea, that they're hoping to port to the North American audience, including the wildly-popular Korean title KartRider. To garner interest with North American players, Min Kim realizes that the audiences are different, and social competition is where it's at. No other information was said about KartRider's introduction to North America, but he says more details will be available soon.

Update: Though we initially listed both Audition and KartRider as games Nexon was looking to bring to North America, Audition has been available to North American audiences for some time now, complete with a catalog of familiar songs!

Tags: audition, combat-arms, interview, ion08, kartrider, min-kim, nexon, nexon-america, ten-ton-hammer, tth

Nexon's Min Kim on the importance of Target to free to play gaming

by Michael Zenke Apr 11th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MapleStory, Business models, Culture, Interviews, MMO industry, Free-to-play

Today Gamasutra has up a massive interview with Min Kim, public face for the Korean gaming powerhouse Nexon. Kim has spoken on numerous occasions at various industry events on overcoming challenges for free to play gaming. Those challenges have translated into huge opportunities, with games like MapleStory, Kart Rider, Mabinogi, and Audition earning Nexon big money. According to Kim, the microtransaction business model the company uses across its titles is responsible for that success. Many other MMO developers have attempted to emulate that success, but their entrenched position 'since the late 90s', has made that difficult.

Some of Kim's most interesting statements surround their interactions with brick-and-mortar retail outlets. "We didn't really take off until we got the cards into Target and Best Buy and 7-Eleven. Over 50 percent of our player base doesn't have access to plastic, between 13 and 17. They just couldn't pay, so we'd effectively lose more than half our business. So that payment side is, I think, one of the biggest battles that people will fight." He goes on to discuss the possibility of Nexon games on the Xbox 360, the role of games in South Korea, and the misconceptions Western developers have when entering the free-to-play marketplace.

Tags: audition, free-to-play, gamasutra, kart-rider, mabinogi, maplestory, microtransactions, min-kim, nexon, rmt

GDC08 Highlights: The future of Virtual Worlds and the end of GDC08

by Dan O'Halloran Mar 2nd 2008 at 12:56PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, MapleStory, Business models, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, Massively highlights, Academic, Education, Virtual worlds, Gaia Online, Kids

The Future of MMOs

The Future of MMOs panel liveblog

Team Massively was there to live blog one of the most anticipated panels of GDC08. On it were a few names you might have heard of, like Cryptic Studios' Jack Emmert, Nexon's Min Kim, BioWare's Ray Muzyka, and Rob Pardo (who has apparently worked on some sort of popular fantasy game). We blogged a blow-by-blow account of the jabs, cuts, and parries from these Massive genre heavyweights.

Gallery: GDC08: The Future of MMOs