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Neowiz

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Neowiz Holdings Corporation
Native name
주식회사 네오위즈홀딩스
FormerlyNeowiz
Company typePublic
KRX: 042420
IndustryVideo games
Founded1997; 28 years ago (1997)
FounderNa Sung Kyun
Headquarters
Seongnam
,
South Korea
Key people
Websitenwhcorp.com/holdings/en
Neowiz
Native name
네오위즈
FormerlyNeowiz Games Corporation
Company typePublic
KRX: 095660
IndustryVideo games
Founded2007; 18 years ago (2007)
Headquarters
Seongnam
,
South Korea
Key people
  • Kim Seungcheol (co-CEO)[1]
  • Bae Taegeun (co-CEO)[1]
Products
ParentNeowiz Holdings
Websiteneowiz.com

Neowiz (Korean: 네오위즈) is a South Korean video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 1997 by Sung Kyun Na. In 2007, a corporate restructuring resulted in the creation of Neowiz Holdings, which became the parent company overseeing various subsidiaries, including the gaming business. In 2017, the gaming division was rebranded as Neowiz. The company is best known for the DJMax Series and Lies of P.

History

[edit]

Neowiz was founded in 1997 by 8 friends,[2] including current Chairman of the Board Na Sung Kyun and Chang Byung Gyu, both graduates of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.[3][4] The name is a combination of the words "new" (neo) and "wizard" (wiz).[5] The company started off as an internet content provider by developing LiveCAST, a service that delivered customizable information (e.g. news, weather, etc.) to its subscribers online.[2] Neowiz was not able to secure enough subscribers to maintain profitability due to the lack of affordable and simple internet access. However, it was able to stay afloat by providing software development services to internet service providers in Korea and Europe.[2]

Neowiz recognized that it was too difficult for end users to set up an internet connection and thus launched OneClick, a service allowing users to connect to the internet with one click, in April 1998. OneClick allowed users to "connect to the internet directly with one click" and users were charged according to the duration of their connection.[3] While the product initially helped them gain widespread recognition, demand for OneClick began to decline in 2000, due to the spread of high-speed broadband internet access. In 2000, OneClick's revenue contribution was around 90%, but dropped below 12% in 2002.[2]

Neowiz realized that with the rise of broadband internet access and the decline of OneClick's profits, it would need a new product. Therefore the company launched SayClub, an online community site with real-time communication, in July 1999.[3] Within 3 months SayClub was able to attract 1 million users and within a year this number grew to 3 million. The service was free to use and revenue from advertisements was not able to cover the expenses. To make SayClub profitable, Neowiz thus introduced avatars in November 2000. Users could purchase clothes and accessories with money to personalize their virtual characters. This feature was an instant success and generated sales of more than $330,000 in the first month.[2] In June 2000, Neowiz was listed on KOSDAQ.[6]

As the market of online communities became saturated and the increasing popularity of digital cameras pushed users to portray themselves with their own photographs, Neowiz once again had to come up with a new business idea. It carried out a survey on SayClub to gather user feedback on desired new features and found out that the users wanted "more fun". Thus, Neowiz added board games to SayClub in 2002 after acquiring the game development company MCUBE in September 2001. In August 2003, it launched pmang, a new platform specifically for video games. By November of the same year, pmang was the most visited game portal in Korea, due to a large scale marketing campaign online and offline.[3] By 2007 pmang offered 23 tabletop games, like poker and mahjong, and 16 advanced casual games and MMORPGs, with more than 30 games in development.[5]

When CEO Sung Kyun Na came back to Neowiz after completing his military service in March 2005, he reorganized the company to focus on video games. In April 2006, Neowiz Japan, a new Japanese subsidiary, was opened and launched a game portal named Gamechu.[3] In the same year, Neowiz also acquired the rhythm game developer Pentavision.[7] In April 2007, the company was converted into a holding company, was renamed to Neowiz Holdings and was segmented into three entities: Neowiz Games Corporation which would focus on the development and publishing of video games, Neowiz Internet Corporation which would concentrate on the Internet business including SayClub and Neowiz Invest Corporation which would participate in both local and international investments. In July 2007, Neowiz Games Corporation was listed on KOSDAQ.[8] In the same year, it acquired the Japanese video game developer GameOn.[9] In March 2017, Neowiz Games Corporation was renamed to Neowiz.[10][11]

Around 2015, Neowiz started developing and publishing for home consoles and Steam, but their main focus in the late 2010s and early 2020s was on smartphone games: It acquired multiple developers of smartphone games[9][12] and also launched their own games on the mobile platforms.[9] With the development of Lies of P, which started around 2020,[13] Neowiz started to shift their focus to console and PC titles and as of 2024, more than 80% of their games are for those platforms.[9]

In November 2023, Neowiz spent $17 million to acquire a 21% stake in BLANK., a video game development studio founded by former CD Projekt Red employees.[14]

Games

[edit]
Year Title Platform Developer Publisher
2007 DJMax Portable 2 PSP Pentavision Pentavision
2008 DJMax Portable Black Square PSP Pentavision Pentavision, CyberFront
DJMax Technika Arcade Pentavision Pentavision
DJMax Trilogy Windows Pentavision Neowiz Games
2009 DJMax Fever PSP Pentavision PM Studios
2010 DJMax Portable 3 PSP Pentavision Pentavision, PM Studios, CyberFront
DJMax Portable Hot Tunes PSP Pentavision Pentavision
Battlefield Online Windows Neowiz Games Neowiz Games
DJMax Technika 2 Arcade Pentavision Pentavision
2011 DJMax Technika 3 Arcade Pentavision Pentavision
2012 DJMax Ray iOS, Android Pentavision Neowiz Internet
DJMax Technika Tune PS Vita Pentavision Pentavision, CyberFront
London 2012: The Official Video Game iOS, Android Neowiz Games Neowiz Games
2013 DJMax Technika Q iOS, Android Neowiz MUCA Neowiz Games
2017 DJMax Respect PS4 Neowiz MUCA Neowiz
2018 Bless Online Windows Neowiz Bless Studio Neowiz
2020 DJMax Respect V Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S Neowiz MUCA Neowiz
Bless Unleashed Windows, Xbox One, PS4 Round8 Bandai Namco Entertainment, Neowiz
Plebby Quest: The Crusades[15] Windows PiedPipers Team Neowiz
2021 Dandy Ace Windows, macOS, Xbox One, PS4, Switch Mad Mimic Neowiz
Skul: The Hero Slayer Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, Switch, iOS, Android SouthPAW Games Neowiz
Metal Unit[16] Windows, Switch JellySnow Studio Neowiz
8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure[17][18] Windows, Switch Rootless Studio Neowiz
Cats & Soup[19] Android Hidea Neowiz
2022 Alliance of Valiant Arms Windows Neowiz Neowiz
Aka[20] Windows, Switch Cosmo Gatto Neowiz
Blade Assault Windows Team Suneat Neowiz
Unsouled[21] Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch Megusta Game Neowiz
2023 Lies of P Windows, macOS, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5 Round8 Neowiz
Brown Dust II iOS, Android GAMFS N Neowiz
SANABI[22] Windows, Switch Wonder Potion Neowiz
2025 Shape of Dreams[23] Windows Lizard Smoothie Neowiz
TBA Goodbye Seoul[24] Windows JINO Games Neowiz
Kill The Shadow[25] Windows Shadowlight Neowiz

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Kyung-tak, Lee (2024-12-10). "Neowiz Holdings wraps up '2024 Colorful Sensations' employee volunteer program". Retrieved 2025-03-18.
  2. ^ a b c d e Lee, Kyungmook; Rho, Sangkyu; Kim, Seongsu; Jun, Gyung Ju (2007-08-01). "Creativity-Innovation Cycle for Organisational Exploration and Exploitation: Lessons from Neowiz - a Korean Internet Company". Long Range Planning. The Corporate Transformation of Korean Firms. 40 (4): 505–523. doi:10.1016/j.lrp.2007.06.009. ISSN 0024-6301.
  3. ^ a b c d e Ahn, JoongHo; Kim, EunJin; Cheon, Eun Young (2008-11-18). "New Growth with Competitive Innovation: The Case Study of an Internet Service Company in Korea". 2008 Third International Conference on Convergence and Hybrid Information Technology. Vol. 1. pp. 543–550. doi:10.1109/ICCIT.2008.188. ISBN 978-0-7695-3407-7.
  4. ^ Yoon, Sung-won (2017-05-20). "'Serial entrepreneurs' pioneer IT industry - The Korea Times". www.koreatimes.co.kr. Retrieved 2025-07-10.
  5. ^ a b Aihoshi, Richard (2007-01-06). "Neowiz Interview". IGN. Retrieved 2025-06-08.
  6. ^ 한국거래소. "KRX 정보데이터시스템". data.krx.co.kr (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-06-08.
  7. ^ Sheffield, Brandon (2008-06-10). "Q&A: Pentavision's Lee Kyu Seok On Moving Beyond Rhythm Games". www.gamedeveloper.com. Retrieved 2025-06-08.
  8. ^ Ahn, JoongHo; Kim, EunJin; Cheon, Eun Young (2008-11-18). "New Growth with Competitive Innovation: The Case Study of an Internet Service Company in Korea". 2008 Third International Conference on Convergence and Hybrid Information Technology. Vol. 1. pp. 543–550. doi:10.1109/ICCIT.2008.188. ISBN 978-0-7695-3407-7.
  9. ^ a b c d Kazuhisa (2024-12-11). "［インタビュー］NEOWIZは，クリエイターたちのやりたいことが通る会社です―――スマホからPC/コンソールへとシフトを決めたゲーム会社の思うこと". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2025-04-17.
  10. ^ "Neowiz Games changes company name to Neowiz". Reuters. 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  11. ^ "Neowiz - Korean developer and publisher re-brands corporate name". MMO Culture. 2017-03-24. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  12. ^ Seung-Woo, Lee (2024-02-02). "Nexon's DnF Mobile obtains Chinese game service license". KED Global. Retrieved 2025-04-26.
  13. ^ Mazanko, Vlad (2022-10-24). "Lies Of P Dev Already Has Plans For DLC, Talks Possible Sequel". TheGamer. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  14. ^ Romano, Sal (2023-11-13). "NEOWIZ acquires 21 percent stake in BLANK". Gematsu. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  15. ^ Lane, Rick (2020-07-06). "Plebby Quest: The Crusades review". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  16. ^ "『Metal Unit』レビュー：トレジャーハンティングとアイテムロストによる興奮と緊張感を楽しめるが、翻訳の質に足を引っ張られている". IGN Japan (in Japanese). 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  17. ^ Manson, Andy (2021-04-08). "8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure Review (PC) - Ribbit For Your Pleasure". Finger Guns. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  18. ^ Reynolds, Ollie (2022-04-20). "'8doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure' Is A Beautiful Hand-Drawn Metroidvania, Out Now". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  19. ^ "【NEOWIZ プレスリリース】NEOWIZモバイルゲーム『猫とスープ』、1周年記念イベント実施". プレスリリース・ニュースリリース配信シェアNo.1｜PR TIMES (in Japanese). 2022-09-08. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
  20. ^ Romano, Sal (2022-11-09). "Aka launches December 15". Gematsu. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
  21. ^ Lee, Seulki (2022-04-21). "언소울드 리뷰". IGN Korea (in Korean). Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  22. ^ Reynolds, Ollie (2023-11-09). "Sanabi's Pixel-Art Cyberpunk Setting Looks Awesome, And It's Out Now". Nintendo Life. Retrieved 2025-04-27.
  23. ^ Takahashi, Dean (2025-01-17). "Neowiz and Lizard Smoothie team up for MOBA roguelike Shape of Dreams". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
  24. ^ "［プレイレポ］「Goodbye SEOUL」はシリーズ展開を予定。開発者のJINO氏に少し話も聞いた［BIC2024］". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). 2024-08-19. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  25. ^ Takahashi, Dean (2025-06-03). "Neowiz signs publishing deal with China's indie game studio Shadowlight". GamesBeat. Retrieved 2025-06-25.
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