The perception is that free-to-play publishers have to fight for the attention of gamers blinded by premium content at retail. Nexon is proving otherwise, with their revenue numbers doing the talking for them. Nexon America, the North American publishing arm of the Nexon Group, is best known for their immensely popular online title MapleStory. The publisher is reporting 36 percent growth for the 3rd quarter. Considering that their bread and butter is free-to-play games with supplementary content users aren’t required to purchase, a 36 percent revenue jump indicates that users are more engaged than ever.
“We are on the verge of having a very strong year,” said Daniel Kim, Nexon America’s CEO. “It’s a testament to the quality and accessibility of our free-to-play games and the amount of new content we have been delivering to our customers. Our hard work has earned us a level of loyalty among our player base that cannot be matched.”
Comparing to corresponding months last year, revenue in July has grown 35 percent, August is up 32 percent, and September 44 percent.
“Increasing our revenues without having added any new games to the company’s portfolio for more than a year tells me that we are on the right track,” Kim said. “Dungeon Fighter Online is just ramping up, so no revenues generated by that game are reflected in the outstanding third quarter we’ve had.”
Aside from the popular MapleStory, Nexon also boasts games Mabinogi and Combat Arms, a free to play shooter that launched a little over a year ago. As mentioned, their newest title Dungeon Fighter Online only just debuted and its microtransaction item shop is newer still.
Nexon has a strong and loyal following on an international scale and it appears that the North American branch is starting to pick up steam. The growing numbers reflect that their established users are spending more, or that their free-to-play model is pulling in new customers. With many retail games now topping out at $60 a pop, we can see the draw of the free-to-play model. Congrats Nexon.