December 23, 2024

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Image of Dungeon and Fighter Mobile (Nexon)

South Korean gaming giant Nexon will launch Dungeon & Fighter Mobile -- the latest title of the developer’s megahit intellectual property -- on Thursday, the company said Wednesday.

Similar to the PC version, the mobile title is a fast-paced 2D anime-styled side-scrolling action game that combines elements of role-playing games and is based on a continuously developing storyline.

Dungeon & Fighter is one of Nexon’s most popular franchises, as the PC version has 850 million registered users worldwide with accumulative sales of $18 billion since its release in August 2005. According to the company, Dungeon & Fighter was the only Korean title to make Statista’s top 10 list of free-to-play games by sales in 2020.

The action game is especially popular in China, where it recorded 5 million concurrent players in 2014.

Neople, Nexon’s subsidiary responsible for the development of the flagship title, said over 250 developers and engineers took part over the course of five years for Dungeon & Fighter Mobile. The main focus was to translate the detailed controls of the keyboard into the touch screen of a smartphone. Yun Myeong-jin, general director of the game developer, said the joystick motion for the smartphone screen was changed over 30 times to make sure that users feel the delicate controls of the action-themed title.

Neople designed it in a way that users would be able to play smoothly with no disruptions even in various unexpected situations, Yun said.

In December, the game maker opened Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’s test server for six hours without prior notice. Hundreds of thousands of players rushed to get a glimpse of the highly anticipated title, leading to waiting times of 30 minutes for access.

With Thursday’s launch, the company will look to boost its relatively weaker performance in mobile earnings. According to Nexon’s yearly earnings report, its mobile sales accounted for 28 percent of its total sales worth 2.85 trillion won ($2.35 billion) in 2021.

Dungeon & Fighter Mobile will become available at 8 a.m. on app stores in South Korea, according to the company. A Nexon official said the company is in the process of making the mobile title available in the global market, including China.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)