Post
NHN to expand its game business based on a solid foundation in the Japanese market
NHN (CEO Jung Woo-jin) held a media conference at its Tokyo office 'Atelier' in Japan. NHN's success in the Japanese game market is relatively unknown in Korea. CEO Jung Woo-jin emphasized that NHN's foundation is in games, as it develops various businesses, and introduced the achievements of the game business in Japan in detail.
NHN started its game business in Japan in 2000. In the 2000s, it surpassed Yahoo Games with the game portal 'Hangame Japan' and ranked first in Japan's 'Best Site of the Year' for three consecutive years. After NHN established the mobile game development studio NHN PlayArt in 2013, it achieved consecutive successes with 'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum' (developed by NHN PlayArt/serviced by LINE Yahoo), 'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' (co-developed by NHN PlayArt/Level-5), and '#Compass' (co-developed by NHN PlayArt/Dwango), standing out in the mobile game market.
NHN's game business in Japan is centered around its wholly-owned subsidiary 'NHN PlayArt'. CEO Jung Woo-jin has also served as the CEO of NHN PlayArt since July 2019, leading the entire game business in Korea and Japan. The Play in the company name signifies the small joys of everyday life, and Art signifies the creation of unique and fresh games through rich ideas and technology. Their motto is to create 'games that anyone can enjoy from the moment they play, anytime, anywhere'.
CEO Jung Woo-jin said, "Until now, our achievements have not been well known in Korea because we did not directly publish games in Japan, but just as Nexon has achieved success in China with 'Dungeon & Fighter' and Krafton has achieved good results in India with 'Battlegrounds Mobile', NHN has also been doing well in the game business in Japan."
NHN PlayArt consists of a total of 3 studios. It currently services 5 games. Each studio is responsible for one of NHN PlayArt's important sources of revenue and major games that are attracting attention in the Japanese game market: 'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum', 'Yokai Watch Puni Puni', and '#Compass'. Currently, each studio is investing more than 30% of its employees in new game development under the name of the 3.3.3 project, and is working on at least 3 projects. By 2025, it plans to release a total of 4 new titles, including the IP-based RPG 'Project G', the action game 'Dream Hacker', the casual PvP game 'Tiger Gate', and the RPG based on a popular IP 'Project BA'.
CEO Jung Woo-jin said, "Japanese gamers spend about 4 times more per person than Americans, and the top 100 mobile games account for 70% of total sales," adding, "Whether a new game enters the TOP 100 is important." He continued, "The three main games of NHN PlayArt are developed by the same company, but they are characterized by different methods of targeting users," and introduced, "We have succeeded in targeting users by deploying individual strategies tailored to the Japanese market, according to the genre and characteristics of the game, and the characteristics of the user base."
'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum' was successful due to its gameplay that encompasses all generations, 'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' was successful due to its use of IP collaboration, and '#Compass' was successful due to its targeting of Japanese fandom culture.
'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum', released in January 2014, is a puzzle game developed by NHN PlayArt and serviced by LINE Yahoo, using a one-stroke drawing method. It is a puzzle game featuring Disney characters, where you connect and eliminate the same characters. It became a national game in Japan, reaching 10 million downloads in just 62 days after its release. It continues to consistently rank first in puzzle genre sales in Japan. As of March of this year, the cumulative number of downloads worldwide has exceeded 100 million.
The biggest strength of 'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum' is its gameplay that encompasses all generations, allowing it to maintain its popularity for over 10 years. △Utilizing Disney's IP, which is popular in Japan, securing popularity with representative characters, △Releasing the game based on the LINE platform, which was emerging as the No. 1 messenger in Japan at the time, and △NHN PlayArt's puzzle game development capabilities, which provided an easy-to-play game method, all three elements created synergy, leading to great popularity from the time of its release in January 2014.
'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' is a collection-type puzzle game co-developed by NHN PlayArt and Japanese game developer Level-5. It was produced in October 2015 based on the popular animation 'Yokai Watch' IP. By utilizing the characters of 'Yokai Watch' and providing maps with the same background as the original work, such as Sakura New Town, it captivated 'Yokai Watch' fans.
The gameplay is a puzzle where you connect the Yokai 'Puni' falling from the top of the screen to make them bigger, and then touch them to eliminate them. You increase the number of fellow Yokai while clearing stages, and there is also a nurturing element to grow your favorite Yokai.
'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' surpassed 32 million downloads last September. The fact that the number of downloads has been steadily increasing until recently, even though it is a game released in 2015, is very meaningful. 8 million downloads increased in the two years after reaching 23 million downloads in January 2022. It is also breaking new records in sales. It recorded the highest quarterly sales ever in the third quarter of 2023.
'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' is the game that best demonstrates NHN PlayArt's development and planning capabilities to appropriately incorporate famous IPs into games. Rather than simply collaborating with various works, it satisfied both existing fans and new users by providing new and unique content for each collaboration. The original series based on the Yokai Watch IP, which is produced along with game events, is receiving a good response from Yokai Watch fans. The strategy of expanding the story of Yokai Watch through webtoon production, in addition to introducing new characters only within the game, worked.
This is possible because of the close cooperative relationship maintained with Level-5, the IP owner and co-developer, and original series such as Nyasaking Story and Hanyou no Metsuryuushi were born within the 'Yokai Watch Puni Puni' game.
'#Compass', released by NHN PlayArt in December 2016, is a 3vs3 real-time battle game. It is a new type of battle game that combines three elements: action, strategy, and cards. The winner is the one who acquires the most point locations within 3 minutes with the 'Hero' character. It successfully targeted Japanese fandom culture with differentiated elements such as the participation of popular voice actors, the use of SNS in battles, and the function of delivering Niconico live broadcasts within the game.
It surpassed 18 million downloads in May 2024, and has consistently maintained its position in the top 20 in sales. In December 2023, it proved its popularity by ranking first in sales on the Japanese Apple App Store, even though it was a game that had been released 8 years ago.
'#Compass' is an example of targeting Japan's fandom culture, which has a strong community base. From the planning stage of the game, the goal was to create a close-knit community through the game. The background of the game was set as 'a virtual SNS world where users communicate through battles', and functions close to real-world SNS were added to the game. In the '#Compass' game, in addition to the space for battles, there are many community spaces where users discuss game strategies or exchange information about tournament events.
After the game was released and a fandom was formed, various events were prepared to increase the interaction between the game and the fans. The strategy is to allow fans to connect with each other through offline events, thereby further strengthening the solidarity of the fandom. Work is also underway to expand the '#Compass' universe outside of the game. A project to produce an animation (#コンパス2.0 ANIMATION PROJECT) is being prepared with the goal of broadcasting in 2025, and in order to maximize the effect of the animation broadcast, the '#Compass' universe is already being promoted through various comics and novels.
CEO Jung Woo-jin said, "NHN plans to expand the IP utilization know-how, which is a major strength acquired through the Japanese game business, to all countries, and grow overall game business sales by more than 30% in 2025 compared to 2024."
To this end, NHN PlayArt considers △game methods suitable for IP utilization, △selection of collaborative IPs that can create synergy depending on the gameplay, and △relationships with IP companies as essential strategic elements necessary for IP utilization game development in Japan. The strategy is to maximize the incorporation of IP utilization know-how, which has been acquired through long experience, into existing popular works and new lineup to be released in the future.
CEO Jung Woo-jin said, "We will strengthen cooperation between the Korean and Japanese game businesses for synergy," and added, "The opportunities for developing and publishing games using Japanese IPs that are popular with global users, including Korea, are greatly increasing."
NHN has formed a partnership with Japanese comprehensive entertainment company Kadokawa to develop joint projects. Kadokawa is a company that has secured a large number of IPs that have a great influence on various cultural fields in Japan, such as manga, animation, novels, movies, and games. Details on the joint project will be released later.
CEO Jung Woo-jin is the longest-serving CEO in the Korean game industry, excluding founders. I'm curious about your thoughts.
Jung Woo-jin =There have been many difficulties recently. I am in the process of overcoming them. I am proud to introduce the Japanese game business, but one side of my heart is heavy. I regret that I have not achieved results worthy of the title of longest-serving CEO. I don't know how much time I have left, but I want to achieve good results. My resolution these days is to create a good track for the company in the future.
I understand that this is the first time NHN has disclosed its achievements in Japan to the Korean media.
Jung Woo-jin =It is true that we have been suppressing our achievements. It is a great source of pride for us, but we had many concerns about how to expand the game business. We thought that the first step in expanding NHN's game business was Japan. The intention is to emphasize PlayArt as the leader of NHN's game business.
Collaboration seems to be important in the Japanese game business. What criteria does NHN use to select and proceed with collaborations?
Kim Sang-ho, Head of Game Business Division =We always pay attention to what content is popular among young people. We select collaboration IPs by considering when attractive content is being animated, etc.
In addition to the game business, NHN Japan also operates businesses such as cloud and webtoons. What kind of synergy can these businesses create with games?
Jung Woo-jin =A business that creates synergy with games is the payment system. In the case of mobile, it will be done in the app store, but it is difficult for game companies to directly handle the payment system on PCs or other platforms. We have our own payment system and are preparing to expand in the Japanese region.
I'm curious about what your goals are while servicing 'LINE: Disney Tsum Tsum' and 'Yokai Watch Puni Puni'. And I'm also curious about the goal in your heart that you want to try the most.
Yuji Hatakeyama, Head of #Compass Business Division =It is to continue to provide new freshness to users. I think it's important not to be afraid of change. There may be people who feel resistant to change, but I don't think it's good to give such caution in the content industry.
My dream or goal is to service #Compass for a long time. I want to service #Compass until I retire.
Hidekazu Tanaka, Head of Yokai Watch Puni Puni Business Division =I also want to operate Yokai Watch Puni Puni for a long time. Puni Puni is the only game among the Yokai Watch IPs that can be enjoyed on smartphones, so I want to service it for a long time.
NHN is focused on mobile game development, but are you considering a console platform?
Jung Woo-jin =It's not just for consoles, but we are developing an intermediate title. We are preparing a title that includes consoles under contract. It's a game genre close to action, and we are preparing it including Nintendo Switch.
How are you looking at and preparing for the next 10 years?
Jung Woo-jin =There were many concerns internally. There was also a period during the COVID-19 period when new games themselves were not created. In conclusion, we are preparing for the future by simplifying it into the 3.3.3 project. (Invest more than 30% in new game development, and proceed with at least 3 projects)
And it is to expand into various genres based on IP. Cross-platform is cautious. Looking at business results, there are not many cases where cross-platform performs well. We are going to proceed with confidence in what we are good at.
As an aside, we are steadily conducting new employee public recruitment every year, even on a small scale. The person in charge of PD sticks out his mouth and says, "I can't work while looking at the resume." Looking at this, I think the name PlayArt has become known in the Japanese market. We will continue to invest in expanding PlayArt for the next 3-5 years.
There are several Korean game companies that have failed in Japan. What is important to succeed in the Japanese market?
Jung Woo-jin =When many Korean companies enter Japan, they often appeal to their strengths rather than understanding Japan. Of course, there are cases where they succeed after many attempts. However, in order to become a company that can provide continuous and stable service, it is important to maintain stability by accumulating a lot of experience rather than positioning itself as a big title. You have to become a Japanese company that understands the Japanese market yourself.
Webzine InvenLee Doo-hyun Reporter
2024-10-07