For NEXON, this year's hot issues at GStar 2007 are likely to be the online version of CounterStrike, as well as the signing ceremony which has acquired service copyright development in four Asia countries on July, this year. There will also be an animation production- related announcement, and publishing new production title demonstrations as well as main booth stage announcements.
Regarding the largest goal, NEXON will take part in GStar. NEXON CMO Min Yong-jae said: "By presenting NEXON's diverse new games to users who visit GStar, providing them with an opportunity for a trial performance, and introducing major issues at a press conference. NEXON's participation at GStar will help to utilize as a publicity effective venue about NEXON as well as NEXON games."
In recent weeks, CNN have spoken of KartRider as the most successful example of computer games in Korea. With the background of such an introduction, NEXON's Kwon explains: "The online game market keeps on growing based on Korea's advanced IT infrastructure. This has been made possible because several home-made online games have gained remarkable support abroad as well."
Among them, KartRider's standing became higher as a national game which flies the flag for Korea, NEXON's officials said.
As KartRider shows with astonishing figure of 800,000 users online at any given time, the game began late in its service in the North America region, one of the largest game markets in the world after Taiwan. Regarding its successful outcome assessment in the overseas market, the relative importance of NEXON's overseas turnover has outrun the relative importance of domestic turnover this year. This is, on one hand, based on NEXON Japan's gradual and continuous growth and, on the other, because NEXON America, has been getting good results, too.
Related business circles assess that it is very desirable that NEXON continues to be a strong player in domestic game publishers. During all the successive GStars, NEXON has been preparing a venue of experience which allows visitors to be able to enjoy games firsthand, laying emphasis on the B2C sphere. In the case of last year too, NEXON drew good response by attempting a new concept through which broadcasting and exhibition happen simultaneously during the period of GStar in common with special cable TV gaming stations.
As to the NEXON game exhibition content within GStar, the company aims at composing with priority given to new games while excluding games which are being commercially serviced right now. NEXON's Maple Story also got an assessment which initiated a fever of cyber world in the North America region in recent weeks. In conjunction with such cyber world fever's initiation plan, NEXON's officials point out: "The relative importance online game accounts is still the overseas market, is not much so. This is a way of finding a way out of market pioneering, but if we change our standpoint, ultimate possibilities can be to be able to create the effect of preoccupying the world market as a suzerain state of online gaming."
In that regard, NEXON wants to consolidate its position as an excellent content provider, leapfrogging over other online games publishers, the company's officials said.
With regard to GStar 2007, the exhibition faces a crisis due to major game publishers' non-attendance. NEXON officials are quick to point out that problem is not likely to cause too many difficulties; although a large majority of online game publishers have decided not to attend.
In their defense, NEXON's CEO explains that they understand already a total of 156 game publishers have decided on their participation firmly, including companies from home and abroad.
For the sake of GStar's ceaseless growth and to boost GStar's standing even more, NEXON asked that each game publishers announce their issues to ensure they are well-matched to the level of an international game show through GStar. They want the Organizing Committee to do its best to attract prominent overseas game publishers through continuous GStar publicity activities.
