Nexon has assiduously avoided the frenzy around the 'metaverse' that has gripped tech giants Microsoft and Facebook. Mahoney hopes to leverage Nexon's experience in operating 'live games' - updating titles while they are running - to launch big budget titles with a Western sensibility, such as the free-to-play shooter game ARC Raiders,В from Embark Studios.Д®mbark's founder, Patrick Soderlund, once led Dice, the company that developed the 'Battlefield' franchise and was acquired by Electronic Arts when Mahoney was head of mergers and acquisitions there. They are also discussing a game or virtual world inspired by Battle of the Planets,В an iconic Japanese anime show from the 1970s that AGBO is developing as a feature film.

These talks are still in preliminary stages, cautions one source with direct knowledge of the situation.

The two companies are in early talks on adapting Nexon franchises such as MapleStoryВ and Dungeon and Fighter,В which have rich lore and passionate fan bases. 'Our vision, which aligns well with Nexon's, recognizes that audiences have come to expect real immersion in the IP they care most about,' said AGBO CEO Jason Bergsman. Nexon is working with AGBO to explore ways to extend its game franchises to film or television and develop virtual worlds or video games inspired by AGBO's movies. 'The idea overall with that is to combine what we're really good at - making a virtual world last and grow forever - with what they're really good at,' Nexon's chief executive, Owen Mahoney, told Reuters. In 2022 it invested US$400 million for a minority stake in AGBO, the independent studio founded by Anthony and Joe Russo, the creative duo who directed Marvel's Avengers: EndgameВ and Avengers: Infinity War. Last year it completed the acquisition of Stockholm-based Embark Studios, whose founder led development of the hit BattlefieldВ franchise. Nexon Co Ltd - little known outside Asia - is one of the world's 10 largest video game companies by market capitalisation its US$22 billion valuation is larger than Take-Two Interactive, the company behind Grand Theft Auto,В or Roblox. TOKYO/LOS ANGELES: The Japanese creator of one of the longest-running online role-playing titles, whose most popular video game has attracted nearly a billion registered users, is gearing up for global expansion and setting its sights on the West.

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