Nexon’s representative RPG game ‘Dungeon & Fighter (hereafter Dunpa)’ challenges a new myth. ‘Dunpa Mobile’, which integrates Neople’s action development know-how, was released on the 24th.
Accordingly, the attention of game fans on Dunpa is once again focused. In particular, the great history of 16 years written through the global game market is also being re-examined.
1. #850 million users worldwide #Cumulative sales of $18 billion
In August 2005, a unique game was released. That’s ‘Dunpa’. At that time, online RPGs using 3D graphics were very popular. Unlike popular 3D games, Dunpa put 2D dot graphics and side-scrolling to the fore, and successfully implemented the controls of arcade games enjoyed in arcades in the past online.
In line with the development motto of ‘action pleasure’, Dunpa provided the ultimate taste in which various combo actions are possible. It was a success by word of mouth with such a taste. As a result, in one year, the number of members was 1 million and the number of concurrent users was 50,000. In 2007, it continued its remarkable growth, recording 5 million cumulative members and 150,000 concurrent users.
Dunpa, which entered China in 2008, ranked first in China’s online games within a month of service. At the end of 2009, for the first time among domestic games, the number of simultaneous users in Korea, China, and Japan reached 2 million, which was a phenomenal record, exceeding the annual sales of 100 billion won.
A large-scale update that fully reflected user opinions became the driving force behind its long-term success. In 2012, the PC room market share ranking rose significantly, seeing the effect of the new character ‘Swordsman’. In addition, new content was introduced one after another based on a new scenario called ‘Daejeon’ in 2013, attracting a large number of users.
The most loved content among users is ‘Anton Reid’. This is the first raid in Dunpa where up to 20 people gather to attack a dungeon with high difficulty.
Currently, Dunpa maintains the unrivaled No. 1 position in the action genre by building a huge fandom of 850 million global users. According to the domestic PC room statistics service ‘The Log’, it ranked first in the PC room action genre from August 2016 to 2021. The cumulative sales recorded by Dunpa of $18 billion (about 21 trillion won) are billions of dollars more than the combined theater revenues of all the sci-fi action blockbuster ‘Star Wars’ series.
2. #Game Hallyu aid #Record 5 million concurrent users in China #Awarded $1 billion export tower
Recently, the popularity of K-content in the global market such as Netflix original drama ‘Squid Game’, idol ‘BTS’, and movie ‘Parasite’ is hot. According to the ‘2019 Content Industry Survey (Contents Industry Statistical Survey)’ released by the Korea Creative Content Agency in July last year, games accounted for 12.3% of sales among the total content market, including movies, music, broadcasting, and publishing. This is more than double the size of the music and film industries, which account for only 5.4% and 5.1%, respectively.
In the late 2000s, Korean online games accounted for 80% of the market share in the Chinese market. However, the market share fell below 40% due to the Chinese government’s regulations on foreign games and the pursuit of Chinese games. In particular, as ‘fake (Sanjai)’ games took hold, the position of Korean games was extremely shrunk.
However, with Neople at the fore, domestic game companies started to recover the Chinese market with ideas and technology ahead of Chinese companies, and Dunpa was the most representative domestic IP that led the Korean game wave in China, recording 5 million simultaneous users.
In the process of renewing a contract with Tencent, a Chinese distribution company, in 2016, Neople surprised the industry once again by signing the contract for a whopping 10 years. It was the result of Tencent believing in Dunpa’s potential. In 2018, thanks to significant global achievements, it received a government award for the ‘Export 1 Billion Dollar Tower’ on the 55th Trade Day. After moving the office building to Jeju Island in 2015, Neople accounted for 43% of Jeju’s total exports of about 1 billion dollars (about 1.22 trillion won), contributing greatly to the development of the local community.
3. From #Festival to Dunfagirl… Presenting marketing trends in the game industry
In December 2007, Neople held the ‘Dungeon & Fighter Festival’, the largest offline event among domestic games. More than 30,000 people flocked to the first event, which was held on a first-come, first-served basis without an invitation, and 5,000 seats were sold out in just 5 seconds immediately after ticket sales.
The Dunpa Festival drew a favorable response from users by introducing e-sports competitions in which users compete against each other every year or by introducing large-scale update information for the first time.
Director Yoon Myung-jin said, “It’s an honor to be able to develop a game that has been consistently loved,” he said.
Dunpa achieved unusual results with a unique advertisement that broke the conventional wisdom. Dunpa CF, which was released on YouTube in January 2014, turned users upside down. The scene where IU, surrounded by enemies, out of nowhere transforms into Shin Bong-seon and swings his sword, provoked laughter with shock. Taking into account the fact that IU and Shin Bong-sun were often mentioned as celebrities who looked alike, they dared to appear together.
Last year’s Dunpa released ‘Going out! Arad Ranger!’ The advertisement also became a hot topic in various communities, with the number of YouTube views exceeding 5 million in a month. This advertisement, a special concept film that was popular in the past, contains the process of heroes suffering economic difficulties due to Corona 19 from receiving an advertisement proposal from Dunpa to producing an advertisement.
‘Dunpa Girl’, a promotional model for Dunpa, also played an important role in user communication. In 2009, IU first met gamers at Dunfa Girl. At the time, she was known as a girl who could sing well, and IU, after her Dawn Fargeul activities, made a ‘three high note’ and became a trend.
In addition to IU, Dunpa has firmly established herself as an idol star by using Dal Shabet and Girl’s Day as promotional models.
The video of Seo Yu-ri, the 3rd generation Dunpa girl, introducing Dunpa technology with an exaggerated reaction and saying, ‘My name is hot!’ is still being talked about by users. Seo Yu-ri, under the stage name Rose Butterfly, was the DJ for ‘Dunpar Radio’ for 2 years.
4. #The only Korean game to be ranked among the top 10 top-grossing F2P games in 2020
According to global market research firm statista, PC F2P (partially paid) game sales showed a stable upward trend from 2018 to 2021.
Among them, in the 2020 F2P highest sales ranking, Tencent’s mobile games ‘Youngyo of the Prince’ and ‘Hwapyeongjeongyeong’ took first and second places side by side, while ‘Roblox’, a metaverse game platform, ranked third.
While the proportion of mobile games worldwide is growing, it is analyzed that Dunpa is the only Korean game to be ranked in the top 10, raising its status.
5. #’Neople’ surpassed KRW 1 trillion in operating profit for the first time as a domestic game developer
In 2008, Nexon acquired Neople, the developer of Dunpa, for a huge sum of 380 billion won. Dunpa’s explosive
Thanks to the box office’s success, Neople became the first Korean game company to exceed 1 trillion won in operating profit. According to the 2017 business report, Neople recorded sales of 1.14 trillion won and operating profit of 1.637 trillion won. It achieved an operating profit rate of 92.53%.
Neople also showed off Dunpa’s potential by achieving operating profits of KRW 1.21 trillion (2018) and KRW 1.36 trillion (2019). In particular, CEO Lee Jeong-heon, who joined Nexon Korea in 2003 as a new employee, served as the head of Neople’s cockpit in 2010 and oversaw Dunpa’s marketing tasks, and Kang Dae-hyun, COO, served as Dunpa’s director in 2012. It is also famous for being together in their prime.
Neople is known as a company that operates the industry’s highest level of welfare system. In order to solve the housing problems of employees, a 32 pyeong (105 m²) apartment for married employees and a 27 pyeong (89 m²) apartment for unmarried employees is provided. If you want to live in another place, you will be provided with housing expenses equivalent to the company house.
The daycare center ‘Acorn Sopung’ is one of the welfare programs that Jejuwondo Neople is proud of. Unlike the metropolitan area, this daycare center with an indoor area of 700 pyeong and an outdoor area of 1200 pyeong can accommodate all children of all employees. It provides refreshment vacations and vacation expenses every three years, and also supports club activity expenses where you can enjoy surfing, fishing, and golf.
Meanwhile, Nexon launched Dunpa Mobile in Korea on the 24th. Dunpa Mobile is a fast and exciting original
Action is incorporated into the mobile platform. Battles to attack monsters in each dungeon and PvP between users are also based on manual battles. In order to maximize the fun of manual battle, we also put a lot of effort into the operation method.
General Director Yoon Myung-jin said, “As much as I want to make a good game and be with adventurers for a long time, I put so much effort into improving the joystick more than 30 times for ‘taste’. We have worked hard to optimize our clients.”
Nexon identified the game performance and market competitiveness of Dunpa Mobile through two in-house tests last year. The purpose is to identify the potential needs of users before the official service and to reflect them in the business preemptively. Participants focused on the overall user experience of the game, from the satisfaction of the character growth and fatigue system, to the manipulation of combat skills, the moment they wanted to leave, and the UI (User Interface).
The results were encouraging. After the test was over, the executives and staff responded positively, “I sincerely support the Neople development team,” “The game is very complete,” and “The action based on manual combat has been properly implemented.”
Thanks to the high participation rate and response during the test period, the test schedule was unusually extended. It went directly to the user test after going through the rigorous in-house testing of the game.
The guerrilla test, which was held for a limited time on December 20, last year, had hundreds of thousands of users immediately after the server was opened, resulting in a queue of nearly 30 minutes. According to its own survey, participants gave positive evaluations in common for manual battles, 2D dot graphics, convenient skill use, and tavern brawl.
The user name ‘Woong*B’ said, “I was impressed with the ‘combo system’ that helps you use continuous skills and the virtual pad that allows you to adjust very delicate options. It was fun to be able to experience the original character,” he said.
