[THE INVESTOR] The first generation of gaming venture CEOs -- the people behind Korea’s dot-com rage -- changed the local gaming landscape forever. Among them, the most famous threesome are Kim Jung-ju, the embattled founder of Nexon, NCSOFT Corp. CEO Kim Taek-jin and Bang Joon-hyuk, chairman of Netmarble Games.

The biggest contribution they made to the local gaming industry is that they brought games into the limelight and helped change public perception.

On a personal level, the three legendary businessmen are known for their tendency to stay out of the probing public eye. And they managed to do that until recently when they were dragged out due to very different reasons. 

Nexon founder Kim Jung-ju
Kim Jung-ju, 48, formed Nexon in December 1994 and turned it into Korea’s No. 1 gaming company with annual sales of 1.7 trillion won (US$1.48 billion).

Kim joined the ranks of global billionaires in 2011, and has stayed there since. In the Forbes list of richest people, he was ranked 771 this year.

When he first started off, Kim was short on funds and had to make money on the side creating websites for companies.

Then his first hit, “The Kingdom of the Wind” took the Korean gaming world by storm. To this day, the game boasts up to 23 million accumulated users. Since then, Nexon has released several other popular games including “Kart Rider.”

However, Kim was recently summoned by the prosecution on bribery charges, and his clean-cut image took a hit. At the same time, Nexon GT, an affiliate of game developer Nexon, saw its stock price plunge to record four-month lows. The share price fell 31.3 percent from 13,200 won in April to 10,050 won on July 20.

On July 21, the stock recovered some ground, ending 1.49 percent higher. 

NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin
NCSOFT founder Kim Taek-jin, 49, is a Seoul National University alumnus along with Kim Jung-ju.

After gaining recognition as a software developer, he founder NCSOFT and released the game “Lineage” in 1998. As one of the most consistently popular games in the industry, the Lineage series reaped nearly 4 trillion won in sales. Other hits, such as “Blood and Soul,” are gaining steady popularity overseas.

NCSOFT’s first-quarter operating profit reached 75.78 billion won, up 68.91 percent on-year, while sales stood at 240.84 billion won, up 28.03 percent. In this year’s Forbes list, Kim had a rank of 1,577.

The founder is also known for a highly publicized tiff with Nexon’s Kim over controlling rights to a firm the two businessmen jointly invested in. The dispute is said to have forced him to step out of the shadows to defend himself. 


Netmarble Games’ chief Bang Joon-hyuk
Bang Joon-kyuk, 48, was yet another tycoon hidden in the wings. But recently, he has been more outgoing and making more public appearances.
Bang founded Netmarble in 2000, but sold the firm to CJ in 2004. He stayed out of the picture for a while due to health problems, but returned in 2014 as CEO of Netmarble -- called CJ Netmarble at the time. He was responsible for receiving a US$500 million investment from China’s Tencent.

He has now set forth new goals for Netmarble. In a press conference on Feb. 18, Bang said the company would become listed as early as year-end. It was a change from previous plans when the company planned to first list an affiliate of Netmarble, but Bang decided that the parent company is in more need of liquidity. The IPO is now underway.

Bang also has close ties with Kim Taek-jin of NCSOFT. In 2015, the two sides struck strategic ties for mutual investment and cooperation worth 300 billion won. Under the deal, Netmarble Games became the third-largest shareholder in NCSoft.

As the largest shareholder of Netmarble Games, Bang is currently estimated to be worth over 1.6 trillion won.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)