Nexon Co., Ltd. · TSE:3659
Nexon — Investor Day (2026)
77 slides from Nexon's investor day presentation, 2026
Slide 1: Nexon Capital Markets Briefing
NEXON CAPITAL MARKE BRIEFING .
Slide 2: Patrick Söderlund
PATRICK SÖDERLUND Executive Chairman Embark Studios Founder and CEO 2
Slide 3: Who I am and Why I'm Here
Who I am and Why I’m Here CEO, Digital Illusions (DICE) EVP of EA Global Studios Founder/CEO, Embark Studios Nexon Board of Director Nexon Executive Chairman PATRICK SÖDERLUND Good afternoon. I’m Patrick Söderlund and like you, I’m a Nexon shareholder. I’ve spent my entire career making games and le
Slide 4: What Nexon Has That Nobody Else Does
What Nexon Has That Nobody Else Does That’s all possible because Nexon has assets that nobody else does. 4
Slide 5: Decades-long relationships with players
MapleStory, Dungeon&Fighter and FC have something that is extraordinarily rare in this industry – decades-long relationships with players. These aren’t games that people play once and move on – they’re woven into people’s lives. Real communities, real friendships, memories that go back decades. You
Slide 6: Nexon in 2025
(Unit: ¥ Billions) 475 124 NEXON IN Revenue Operating Income 2025 100+ Cash Flow Generation 800+ Cash Balance But before we get into the details, I want to be clear about something: This is not a turnaround story. In 2025, Nexon posted record revenue of 475 billion yen…. Operating income of 124 bill
Slide 7: What We Haven't Done Well Enough
What We Haven’t Done Well Enough Portfolio Management Rising Development Costs Dungeon&Fighter Revenue Decline Margin Compression & Failure to Sustain New Titles MapleStory: Idle RPG Operational Errors As a veteran industry executive, I’ll offer some answers: • The product portfolio Nexon supports i
Slide 8: What's Changed
What’s Changed Greater Communication Among Executive Team Faster/Better Decision Making Stress Testing Revenue Assumptions Top to Bottom Cost Management Today, the executive leadership team who run this company sit in the same room once a week to make decisions. We’ve been through the entire portfol
Slide 9: What's Changed
What’s Changed Fewer Bets – More Conviction Cost Management Process Improvement In summary: Fewer bets; more conviction behind each. Cost management and process improvements will be ongoing, but we are taking immediate action. One more glaring issue: Nexon has delivered an unfortunate set of surpris
Slide 10: 2027 revenue and operating income targets
In that spirit, I want to address the 2027 revenue and operating income targets that were set at our capital markets briefing in 2024. As you may already suspect, those targets will not be met on the original timeline. At the time, the logic was based on strong franchise momentum, a growing pipeline
Slide 11: Foundation for Growth
Foundation for Growth ¥800 Bn ¥100 Bn ¥380 Bn • Eight hundred billion yen in cash. • Eight consecutive years of operating cash flow above one hundred billion yen. • Since 2019, Nexon has retired approximately 150 million shares, with repurchase initiatives that have returned roughly ¥380 billion to
Slide 12: What We Are Building
What We Are Building 01 02 03 A Product Portfolio Capital Returns That Margins That Improve with Every Title Reflect What the with Scale Earning Its Place Business Generates • Margins that improve with scale. • A product portfolio with every title earning its place. • And capital returns that reflec
Slide 13: Redesigning Game Development
Redesigning Game Development Now let me offer some perspective on a topic you’ve heard about from every company this year: AI. Every company has a plan; most will get it wrong. They’re committing big investments in tools – but tools won’t help because they’ve misread the challenge. AI may be a race,
Slide 14: Billions of Player Interactions
Billions of Player Interactions We’ve spent three decades building a foundation that can’t be bought – a foundation that can’t be replicated without a lot of time. Nexon has deep franchise intelligence built on billions of player sessions across some of the world’s longest-running games. 14
Slide 15: Context
CONTEXT That’s not a database, it’s context. Context is decades of design decisions – the ones that worked and the ones that didn’t. What retains MapleStory players at year five, versus year fifteen. Context is how the Dungeon&Fighter economy responds to a monetization tweak. That context – tens of
Slide 16: Mono Lake
Mono Lake Today Junghun is going to tell you about Mono Lake – not a pilot program, a functional initiative that provides access to intelligence across every step of our development process and live services. This obviously begs the question, how did a new studio like Embark, succeed without all tha
Slide 17: Applying the Embark playbook to Nexon
But let's be realistic – you don’t take the playbook from a new studio and stamp it onto an established organization like Nexon. A 50-person team building a new IP and a 300- person team running a franchise that’s been live for 20 years do not work the same way. The point isn’t uniformity – it’s tha
Slide 18: ARC Raiders and Why It Matters
ARC Raiders and Why It Matters 15% Asia Rest of World 85% North America Europe ARC Raiders 2025 Revenue Before we finish talking about creative output, I want to take a moment to offer some context on what the success of ARC Raiders means to Nexon’s business and our future. Nexon generates almost al
Slide 19: Mergers & Acquisitions
Mergers & Acquisitions Game IP Player Communities Sustainable Creative Team Margin Requirements Now some perspective on our approach to M&A. Beyond organic growth, M&A represents a opportunity if approached responsibly. We’ve all seen it go bad too many times in our industry. I’ve watched it happen
Slide 20: Where This is All Going
Where This is All Going * The letters, graphics, symbols, logos and other marks, and illustrations, characters and other works, which are shown in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, copyrighted works or other legally protected materials owned by respective right holders. I want to
Slide 21: Building lifelong passion franchises
We make the worlds inside our games deeper. We create more ways for people to experience our franchises no matter where they are, how much time they have, or what stage of life they’re in. We take the community and the content and the conversation happening around our games seriously, not as a side
Slide 22: Nexon Has The Assets
Nexon Has The Assets Franchises Players Talent ¥800 Billion I didn’t take this job to tinker around the edges. I took it because I think Nexon can be one of the most valuable game companies in the world. The franchises are already here. The players are here. The people are here. 800 billion yen in c
Slide 23: Junghun Lee
JUNGHUN LEE President and CEO Junghun Lee Good afternoon to our guests here in Tokyo and welcome to others watching the webcast. Patrick’s candid assessment captures where Nexon is today. This afternoon, I’m going to start with a straightforward assessment of our performance since our last CMB in 20
Slide 24: Pipeline
Pipeline Dungeon&Fighter: Dungeon&Fighter Dungeon&Fighter: Idle RPG Classic ARAD NAKWON: Vindictus: OVERKILL Last Paradise Defying Fate 2026 2027 2028 Following that, I’ll review our blueprint for expanding established franchises and, among our rich pipeline of new games, provide an update on six ne
Slide 25: Enduring Player Relationships
Enduring Player Relationships What I would like to emphasize throughout my intro and closing parts is that Nexon has a unique ability to sustain relationships with players, I hope you will keep this in mind throughout my presentation. 25
Slide 26: What Did Not Work
What Did Not Work Retention Challenges New Project Delays Let me start with an assessment of what didn't work. Dungeon&Fighter Mobile launched with terrific momentum in 2024, then lost its way. The retention mechanics weren't strong enough to hold players long- term. Same issue with The First Descen
Slide 27: What Worked Well
What Worked Well Resilience of All-New Global IP: ARC Raiders Core Franchises • On Track to Become an Enduring Pillar • Makes Nexon More Diversified, Durable and Globally Competitive To start, we again demonstrated the resilience of our core franchises. In 2025, the MapleStory franchise achieved 43%
Slide 28: MapleStory
MapleStory Now let’s look at MapleStory, which has become the flagship IP in our strategy for unlocking growth with franchise expansions and a blueprint for company-wide IP growth. That blueprint began with a simple question: In the past 22 years, tens of millions of players have touched the MapleSt
Slide 29: MapleStory IP Expansion
MapleStory IP Expansion Classic Expansion Light Expansion Core Expansion Novelty of Experience Frontier Expansion Definitive Expansion Intensity of Experience We developed a matrix to deliver experiences that speak to different cohorts – energizing the core, bringing back dormant players and attract
Slide 30: Hyperlocalization
Hyperlocalization Beyond simple translation; cultivates a sense of community among players MapleStory ex. Korea PC Revenue History Another critical element of the MapleStory success is Hyperlocalization – a process that goes far beyond simple translation to adapt content to local tastes in big marke
Slide 31: Korea MapleStory
Korea MapleStory Core Expansion Korea MapleStory Revenue History At the start of the year, our priority was to restore the core – MapleStory PC in Korea – with content updates, live operations and community management that drives engagement and word-of-mouth trial. 31
Slide 32: ASSEMBLE update event in Seoul
A good example was last summer’s ASSEMBLE update which was highlighted by a major event in Seoul that attracted an audience of thousands. The update allowed us to build a meaningful tie with our users and confirm how engaged our users are. 32
Slide 33: MapleStory Worlds
MapleStory Worlds Classic Expansion 7 Mn 81 % 91 % Previously Played MapleStory Our UGC platform, MapleStory Worlds began with the simple insight that long- time players each have a favorite era and experience they’d like to see more of. MapleStory Worlds gives players the game-creation tools and as
Slide 34: MapleStory: Idle RPG
MapleStory: Idle RPG Light Expansion Soft Entry Clear Character Progression Less Friction Another expansion experience is MapleStory: Idle RPG, which launched in Korea last year. As a title that falls into the Light Expansion category, it key features are as follows: • Soft Entry • Clear Character P
Slide 35: MapleStory: Idle RPG
MapleStory: Idle RPG Light Expansion Player Cohort Age Distribution ~19 20~29 30~39 46% 54% ~19 20~29 30~39 Past MapleStory Players New Players The impact of MapleStory: Idle RPG was both immediate and enduring. This chart on the game’s demographic profile captures how it is attracting a new audienc
Slide 36: 2026 MapleStory Franchise Growth
2026 MapleStory Franchise Growth Sustained Growth in Korea PC Global PC Growth through Hyperlocalization Expansion of MapleStory Worlds and MapleStory: Idle RPG into New Regions and Formats In 2026, the franchise is expected to deliver additional growth. • The Korea PC service will sustain its growt
Slide 37: Dungeon&Fighter
Dungeon&Fighter Now, let’s look at how the MapleStory growth blueprint can be exported to energize another massive Nexon franchise: Dungeon&Fighter. 37
Slide 38: 2026 Dungeon&Fighter Franchise Priorities
2026 Dungeon&Fighter Franchise Priorities Improve performance of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile Apply the MapleStory playbook In 2026, we’ve established two priorities for Dungeon&Fighter: • Improving the performance of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile. • Applying the MapleStory playbook with new games and experience
Slide 39: Dungeon&Fighter Mobile
Dungeon&Fighter Mobile Hyperlocalization Refinement to Core Combat Structure and Reward Loops Strenghtened Production Framework with Tencent I’ll start with the mobile game and a clear statement on the challenge. The sharp decline that followed the 2024 launch in China is NOT related to quality issu
Slide 40: Dungeon&Fighter IP Expansion
Dungeon&Fighter IP Expansion Classic Expansion Light Expansion Core Expansion Novelty of Experience Frontier Expansion Definitive Expansion Intensity of Experience Beginning with the core PC game, we’ve scheduled a major new season for China in April. And we are preparing fresh in-game experiences s
Slide 41: Dungeon&Fighter: Idle RPG Coming 2026
Dungeon&Fighter: Idle RPG Coming 2026 Light Expansion First up is Dungeon&Fighter: Idle RPG. Like MapleStory: Idle RPG, it offers a big growth opportunity for the franchise with a casual and easily accessible experience. The game is scheduled for release this year. 41
Slide 42: Dungeon&Fighter Classic in 2027
Dungeon&Fighter Classic in 2027 Classic Expansion Next is Dungeon&Fighter Classic – a reboot of the 2009 game, which is widely considered one of the most exciting eras for Dungeon&Fighter. Classic restores the original action-based experience on a modern UX and is scheduled to debut in 2027. 42
Slide 43: Global Expansion
Global Expansion And we have a multi-year strategy for introducing the Dungeon&Fighter IP outside of our core markets in Asia. 43
Slide 44: The First Berserker: Khazan
The first game in this series,The First Berserker: Khazan, was released in 2025 and delivered a hardcore action experience tailored specifically to Western audiences. Khazan demonstrated that Dungeon&Fighter can travel. We are now preparing for its China launch, which will further validate its long-
Slide 45: Dungeon&Fighter: ARAD
Dungeon&Fighter: ARAD is a second initiative for expanding the franchise into new markets and platforms. Now in development for PC, console, and mobile, ARAD reimagines Dungeon&Fighter to attract a younger, more casual global audience. 45
Slide 46: Project OVERKILL
Next in the series is Project OVERKILL, an online action RPG for PC, and console which fully modernizes combat physics, visuals, and overall presentation while reinterpreting Dungeon&Fighter’s icon raids, dungeons and cooperative play. Early testing confirmed strong interest from players. 46
Slide 47: Dungeon&Fighter Franchise Summary
Dungeon&Fighter Franchise Summary Expanding Across Platforms Genres Region Player Segments To summarize, our strategy for unlocking growth in the Dungeon&Fighter franchise spans multiple vectors including: • Platforms — PC, console, and mobile • Genres — from classic side-scrolling to hardcore actio
Slide 48: Mabinogi
Mabinogi And we have a similar plan for Mabinogi, a 21-year Nexon franchise experienced by more than 100 million people around the world. The franchise demonstrated the ability to scale with the launch of a mobile game in Korea last year. 48
Slide 49: Mabinogi IP Expansion
Mabinogi IP Expansion Classic Expansion Light Expansion Core Expansion Novelty of Experience Definitive Expansion Frontier Expansion Intensity of Experience Watch for MABINOGI MOBILE to release in Taiwan and Japan later this year and, further ahead, all new experiences like Mabinogi Eternity, which
Slide 50: FC
FC * The letters, graphics, symbols, logos and other marks, and illustrations, characters and other works, which are shown in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, copyrighted works or other legally protected materials owned by respective right holders. Next, an update on our FC franc
Slide 51: FC Franchise
FC Franchise Franchise Revenue History * The letters, graphics, symbols, logos and other marks, and illustrations, characters and other works, which are shown in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, copyrighted works or other legally protected materials owned by respective right hold
Slide 52: ARC Raiders
ARC Raiders Next, some perspective on ARC Raiders. By now you’ve seen the data on the fantastic launch and sustained momentum driven by frequent updates of new content. Recognizing the importance of sustained engagement, Embark launched the game with a full content plan which has served to maintain
Slide 53: NAKWON: Last Paradise and new IP
Beyond established franchises, our pipeline includes new IP – each with global potential. A great example of this is NAKWON: LAST PARADISE, a multiplayer survival game set in a post-apocalyptic city. We recently completed a closed-alpha test with more than 37,000 concurrent players – a significant a
Slide 54: Pipeline
Pipeline Dungeon&Fighter: Dungeon&Fighter Dungeon&Fighter: Idle RPG Classic ARAD NAKWON: Vindictus: OVERKILL Last Paradise Defying Fate 2026 2027 2028 Our full pipeline is highly promising and today, we want to highlight six new games in development for 2026 and beyond – each with potential to deliv
Slide 55: Partnership
Partnership * The letters, graphics, symbols, logos and other marks, and illustrations, characters and other works, which are shown in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, copyrighted works or other legally protected materials owned by respective right holders. As a final note on the
Slide 56: Partnership
Partnership * The letters, graphics, symbols, logos and other marks, and illustrations, characters and other works, which are shown in this material are trademarks, registered trademarks, copyrighted works or other legally protected materials owned by respective right holders. And yesterday we annou
Slide 57: Mono Lake
Mono Lake Before I finish, I want to provide some detail on the AI strategy that Patrick mentioned, specifically, our implementation of the Mono Lake initiative, which represents an end-to-end step change in how we create and support our games. Nexon has used AI tools for some time and we’re quickly
Slide 58: Mono Lake
Mono Lake Mono Lake makes the intelligence available across everything we build and operate – every developer, every live ops team, every product decision has access to the base of information we’ve accumulated over decades. 58
Slide 59: AI Without Context is Noise
AI Without Context is Noise Billions of player sessions Decades of CONTEXT- Hard-earned live game data design knowledge POWERED AI Uniquely Differentiated Force AI without context is just speed. Faster output of a generic outcome. Tools that know nothing about design history, player behavior, or inn
Slide 60: Mono Lake
Mono Lake Design Greenlight Developer Decades of player behavior Live game telemetry Engagement patterns Development Live Service Live Ops ‘Nexon’ Data Support Asset Economy data Development Retention & Product monetization Greenlight Decision How do the lessons of ARC Raiders factor into this? Beyo
Slide 61: Enduring Player Relationships
Enduring Player Relationships We’re now nearing the end of my presentation. I want to highlight my message once again at this point. Everything I've presented today – franchise expansions, hyperlocalization, platform diversity, a pipeline of new IP – it all adds up to the same thing: Nexon is buildi
Slide 62: Can This Become a Lifelong Passion for Someone?
Can This Become a Lifelong Passion for Someone? “Can this become a lifelong passion for someone?” An IP portfolio anchored by enduring brands, and six new titles in development. They are all part of a pipeline built around this one question. And finally, The division of labor in our executive team i
Slide 63: Shiro Uemura
SHIRO UEMURA CFO Shiro Uemura Good afternoon everyone. As Patrick and Junghun have outlined, we are entering the next phase of Nexon’s evolution. Building on their remarks, I would like to review our recent financial performance and then outline how we are approaching 2026 under the new operating mo
Slide 64: 2024-2026 Revenue / Operating Income
2024-2026 Revenue / Operating Income Expect Revenue and Operating Income to Grow with Margin Improvement in 2026 (Unit: ¥ Billions) Revenue 475.1 Operating Income 446.2 OI Margin 28% 26% 124.2 124.0 2024 2025 2026 I’ll start with a look back at our recent performance. In 2025, we achieved record-hig
Slide 65: 2024-2026 MapleStory Revenue
2024-2026 MapleStory Revenue (Unit: ¥ Billions) Idle RPG Y/Y double-digit% Worlds Mobile PC 120.4 Y/Y Growth Rate 84.0 2024 2025 2026 In 2025, MapleStory franchise delivered strong 43% year-over-year growth and achieved record high revenue in its 22nd year, driven by the solid recovery in PC and the
Slide 66: 2024-2026 Dungeon&Fighter Revenue
2024-2026 Dungeon&Fighter Revenue (Unit: ¥ Billions) Others 163.0 Y/Y Mobile slight PC decline Y/Y Growth Rate 128.7 2024 2025 2026 Next is our Dungeon&Fighter franchise which achieved strong growth in 2024 from a mobile launch in China but declined in 2025, despite a strong recovery in PC service.
Slide 67: 2024-2026 FC Revenue
2024-2026 FC Revenue Y/Y single-digit% FC MOBILE FC ONLINE Y/Y Growth Rate 2024 2025 2026 The FC franchise tends to follow revenue cycles aligned with the World Cup, such as the tailwind from the 2022 Cup that drove record-setting revenue in 2023, followed by declines in 2024 and ‘25. This year, we
Slide 68: Three Major Franchises Revenue
2024-2026 Three Major Franchises Revenue (Unit: ¥ Billions) Y/Y FC single-digit% MapleStory Dungeon&Fighter 330.9 331.5 Y/Y Growth Rate 2024 2025 2026 Taken together, we expect revenues from our three major franchises to deliver single-digit growth collectively in 2026 from the ¥331.5 billion base i
Slide 69: Emerging Franchises and New Games
2024-2026 Emerging Franchises and New Games (Unit: ¥ Billions) Y/Y Y/Y Growth Rate growth 143.6 115.3 2024 2025 2026 Moving to emerging franchises and new games, 2025 revenue grew 25% collectively driven by the launch of MABINOGI MOBILE and the global smash hit ARC Raiders. Looking ahead in 2026, we
Slide 70: 2026 Cost Assumptions vs 2025
2026 Cost Assumptions vs 2025 Expect Margin Improvement Driven by Strict Cost Discipline HR Costs: Flat Marketing Expenses: Flat Platform Fees: Increase Royalty Expenses: Increase Others: Increase I’ll start with fixed costs. With strict oversight and reallocation of resources, we will ensure discip
Slide 71: 2026 Plan and Priorities
2026 Plan and Priorities First Year of Our Transformation Restore Dungeon&Fighter Mobile Sustain MapleStory Franchise Growth Leverage World Cup Enthusiasm with FC Community Enhanced Cost Discipline Implement Strict ROI-Based Review Our transformation priorities in 2026 include: • Restore Dungeon&Fig
Slide 72: Shareholder Returns
Shareholder Returns Next, I would like to discuss our approach to shareholder returns. 72
Slide 73: Shareholder Return History
Shareholder Return History (Unit: ¥ Billions) 95% 132.6 Total Returns (Incl. Buybacks and Dividends) % of Last Year’s OI 79% Returned (Incl. Other Expenses) 50% 85.9 70.0 2023 2024 2025 Since 2019, Nexon has returned approximately ¥380 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and retired ro
Slide 74: Financial Summary
Financial Summary 2026 as The First Year of Dramatic Transformation Annual Dividend of ¥60 Per Share Remain Committed to Meaningful Capital Returns Let me close with a brief summary of what I presented today. We consider 2026 to be year one in a dramatic transformation — a year of focus and discipli
Slide 75: Closing remarks: industry shift
PATRICK SÖDERLUND Thank you Uemura-san. I want to close with some context that goes beyond what we’ve shown today. The games industry is in the middle of a shift unlike anything I've seen in twenty-five years. How games are built, how they run, how they connect with players – it’s changing faster th
Slide 76: Resources, context, and hunger
I can tell you we have the hunger. This leadership team knows exactly what's at stake, and we're moving with a sense of urgency this company hasn't had in a while. Resources, context, and hunger. Right now, at exactly the moment when the industry is shifting. That's a rare and valuable combination.
Slide 77: Thank You for Joining Us Today!
Thank You for Joining Us Today! 77