Nexon, the developer and publisher behind MMOs like The First Descendant, doesn’t rely on a game’s potential profit to ensure its success – instead, the company looks to the “raw voices of users” while working on new titles.
As reported and translated by Automaton, Nexon CEO Yong-hyun Park describes why feedback is valuable in a recent interview with 4Gamer. When asked how the studio assesses any potential games, Park reveals a process that involves users’ direct opinions rather than any analysis of market data or profit predictions – and this is partially due to a lack of prior solid examples of similar releases to look back to, at least in South Korea.
“If it’s an MMORPG, we can roughly imagine how it will perform,” Park states. “However, when it comes to titles like Blue Archive or The First Descendant, neither my company nor I personally have experience making and releasing such games to the market, and even in Korea, these kinds of games have hardly been made up until now.” Considering this lack of data, Nexon prefers to “run with projects” without any defined performance forecast.
According to Park, this applies to the company’s production process even with titles that cost $70 million or more. An absence of pre-existing data isn’t the only reason, either – he simply doesn’t trust the numbers while trying to assess a game’s potential success. He prefers to look to the “raw voices of users” instead. “Working backwards based on the profit you want to achieve with your game used to work fine in the past, when production costs were low.”
Now that development costs are “gradually increasing,” though, as well as “errors in the numbers can accumulate,” Park says “you can find your game falling apart at release.” That’s why he believes that “focusing on user feedback is the most reliable method at the moment.” Nexon “may not know how much money we can make by developing a certain game, but we can get a feeling as to what kind of game will make users happy.”
That’s why the company opts to test games with players, “even in the middle of development and collect feedback.” This feedback may not be able to provide developers with direct data about the number of downloads or purchases they can expect, but it’s how they can “find out whether users would like to play our game and come back to it, and we choose to believe in this and run with it.”
News
The ‘Tolkien Professor’ Vindicates Rings of Power’s Shocking Revelation in Season 2 Finale: ‘There’s no such thing really as canon’
The ‘Tolkien Professor’ defends The Rings of Power Season 2 finale, explaining why Gandalf’s early appearance fits Tolkien’s evolving lore perfectly. The ‘Tolkien Professor’ just dropped some major knowledge bombs on The Rings of Power fandom, and honestly, it’s a game-changer! After…
Is Sunfyre Dead? – Why ‘House of the Dragon’ Writers Will Be Foolish to Change the Storyline Like George R.R. Martin Warned
House of the Dragon writers should keep Sunfyre alive and avoid any more massive deviations from the source material. One of the mysteries left undiscussed in the second installment of House of the Dragon is Sunfyre’s whereabouts. King Aegon’s beloved dragon was…
Why Viggo Mortensen Doesn’t Love Lord of the Rings Sequels and Peter Jackson is to Blame: ‘He became like Ridley Scott’
Viggo Mortensen opens up about his thoughts on The Lord of the Rings sequels and his pursuit of authentic roles in Hollywood. When it came to the Lord of the Rings sequels, Viggo Mortensen wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet. The…
New Nielsen Data Reveals ‘The Rings Of Power’ Total Minutes Watched Declined By Over 26% As Head Of Amazon Attempts To Spin Show As Success
Owain Arthur as Prince Durin IV; Sophia Nomvete as Disa in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2024), Amazon MGM Studios Data tracking firm Nielsen released new data that shows watch time for The Rings of Power Season 2’s…
Rings Of Power’s Most Controversial Season 2 Moment Continues A Frustrating Tolkien Debate
A particular moment in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has inspired a fiery debate—but such a topic is really nothing new to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Some of the most controversial aspects of the Prime Video series revolve…
Get Ready For A Disturbing Celebrimbor Scene In The Rings Of Power Season 3
Celebrimbor may have died in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, but this isn’t the last we will see of his character. The Lord of Eregion was a primary feature of the Prime Video show and faced…
End of content
No more pages to load