| Netmarble Corporation | |
| Native Name: | 넷마블 주식회사 |
| Type: | Public |
| Founder: | Bang Jun-hyuk |
| Location: | Guro District, Seoul, South Korea |
| Key People: | Park Sean (CEO)[1] |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Products: | Online games |
| Industry: | Mobile game Web game |
| Operating Income: | KRW 294 billion (2016)[2] |
| Net Income: | KRW 209 billion (2016)[3] |
| Assets: | KRW 1,957 billion (2016)[4] |
| Equity: | KRW 1,310 billion (2016)[5] |
| Owner: | |
| Num Employees: | 3,000 non-consolidated in Korea (2016)[7] |
| Subsid: | Kabam Kung Fu Factory Jam City, Inc. (minority stake) |
Netmarble Corp. (Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer, which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk.
Netmarble developed in 2015 and released to the public that same year. As of 2019 L2R became one of the highest-grossing mobiles in the market; exceeding 924 million dollars in 11 months since its release. Currently, Netmarble continues to update and bring new content to L2R.
Netmarble produces role-playing mobile games. As of 2015, it had more than 3,000 employees and served over 120 countries worldwide. In May 2017, Bang took the company public, raising $2.4 billion.[8]
Netmarble has developed mobile games including Seven Knights, Raven (Evilbane in the U.S.) and Everybody's Marble. It also claims a large shareholder stake in SGN, a casual game developer, and has a strategic partnership with CJ ENM.[9]
Since 2015, the company has licensed Disney-owned properties to produce games such as (2015),[10] Disney Magical Dice (2016),[11] and (2017).[12] [13] [14] [15]
In 2017, Netmarble acquired North American interactive entertainment company Kabam.[16]
In 2018, Netmarble named Park Sean as its new CEO. Park, the former chief strategy officer of the operator of KakaoTalk, co-headed Netmarble with incumbent chief Kwon Young-sik.[17]
In April 2018, Netmarble acquired 25.71% in Big Hit Entertainment, the agency of Korean boy group BTS and TXT, becoming its second largest shareholder.[18] As of 2021, Netmarble owns 19.31% of the Big Hit Entertainment after it changed its name to HYBE Corporation[19]
Netmarble and Disney's partnership significantly deteriorated near the end of 2018 when the former announced that it can no longer support Disney Magical Dice and Star Wars: Force Arena, and eventually shut down both games, leaving Future Fight as the only Disney-based game it supported.
In February 2021, the company acquired Los Angeles based developer Kung Fu Factory.[20]
On August 20, 2021, the company established a subsidiary label known as Metaverse Entertainment which partnered up with Kakao Entertainment to manage musical artists.[21] Five days later, Kabam released a sequel to Future Fight, titled Marvel Future Revolution, which was an ambitious online open-world superhero action RPG that ran on Unreal Engine 4, employed several notable voice actors and offered a more cinematic presentation. On January 25, 2023, the label debuted a virtual girl-group known as .[22]
As of 2021, Netmarble shareholders consisted of Bang Jun-hyuk (24.12%), CJ ENM (21.78%), Tencent (Han River Investment Pte. Ltd.) (17.52%), NCsoft Corp. (6.8%) and Others (29.78%).[23]
Following the poor performance of Marvel Future Revolution, Netmarble announced in June 2023 that the game would shut down on August 25, 2023.[24] On January 19, 2024, Netmarble shut down its metaverse subsidiary, laying off 70 employees.[25]
| Year | Title | Developer | Publisher | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | MAIET Entertainment | Netmarble | Publisher in Korea only | |
| Grand Chase | KOG Studios | Netmarble | One of many publishers | |
| 2007 | SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online | Softmax | Netmarble | |
| 2008 | Uncharted Waters Online | Koei Tecmo | Netmarble | Publisher in North America and Europe only |
| Prius Online | CJI | Netmarble | ||
| 2012 | Scarlet Blade | Liveplex | Netmarble | |
| Netmarble | Netmarble | |||
| 2014 | Seven Knights | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble | |
| 2015 | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | ||
| 2016 | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | ||
| 2017 | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | Shut down on January 12, 2019 | |
| Arena of Valor | TiMi Studio Group | Netmarble | Publisher only in Korea | |
| 2018 | The King of Fighters All Star | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | |
| BTS World | Takeone Company Corp | Netmarble | ||
| 2020 | Seven Knights 2 | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble | |
| Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross | Netmarble F&C | Netmarble | ||
| 2021 | Marvel Future Revolution | Netmarble Monster | Netmarble | Shut down on August, 25th 2023. |
| 2022 | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | ||
| 2023 | Netmarble F&C | Netmarble | ||
| Game of Thrones[26] | Netmarble Neo | Netmarble | ||
| Netmarble | Netmarble | In all countries on July 27, 2023 | ||
| TBA | RF Project | Netmarble | Netmarble | |
| Shangri-La Frontier | Netmarble Nexus | Netmarble | ||
| Solo Leveling | Netmarble | Netmarble |