Recently, one of the hottest topics in the gaming industry is undoubtedly the aggressive expansion of NEXUS. By acquiring ONE store, NEXUS is not just acting as an app market operator; it is shaking the market landscape by declaring its evolution into a global gaming platform fused with AI and blockchain technology. In this interview, NEXUS CEO Jang Hyun-guk directly addresses the challenges, future vision, and the concerns and rumors circulating inside and outside the industry.

The ultimate goal envisioned by CEO Jang is clear. Much like Steam, which built a monopolistic community ecosystem in the PC game market, he aims to complete a massive platform for mobile and next-generation gaming that serves as a hub where users and developers communicate freely. He presented a concrete roadmap to preempt technological shifts, strengthen user-centric benefits, and accommodate a large volume of core content, including MMORPGs, to fill the current market void.

Existing ONE store has maintained its position in the Korean market with the support of the three major mobile carriers and Naver, amidst the duopoly of Google and Apple. However, it was a fact that relying solely on a structure of cutting margins to provide point-backs had clear growth limits and lacked the momentum to enter the global stage. CEO Jang explained the background of the acquisition, stating that it was essential to improve the constitution of the market beyond the economic incentive-based model into a 'gaming community platform' where users visit and stay on their own.

He also mentioned communication with the existing ONE store labor union. CEO Jang emphasized, "Opposition to the sale was a foregone conclusion, so I was willing to listen to everything else. Many people evaluate ONE store's performance negatively, but when I said I would build an AI gaming platform and a blockchain gaming platform, the people at ONE store were the ones who did the work closest to this vision. You could say they are nowhere else in South Korea."

The 'mobile gaming community platform' market that CEO Jang is targeting is currently a near-void. The two major mobile stores, Google and Apple, do not currently host separate communities. At most, they stop at opinion sharing through a star-rating system. NEXUS intended to target this gap. While users on Steam voluntarily write reviews, rate games, and communicate, Google and Apple tend to be passive in activating user-centric communities, focusing only on platform maintenance. NEXUS aims to build a powerful mobile community by targeting this 'empty space,' combining rating systems, user communication features, and the streamer platform 'One Wave'.

CEO Jang said, "The global gaming market is 300 trillion won, and half of that is in mobile. Since China accounts for about 50 trillion won, excluding that, a 100 trillion won market is operating without a community. Users want to know which games are trending, doing well, have high ratings, and what games the people they like want to play. The goal is to create a community that can capture this large market."

To this end, the current direction is to preemptively enter various elements that the existing two major markets cannot target. For example, NEXUS plans to introduce Tencent mini-games, which have been very popular in China, under the name 'One Play' through a collaboration with Tencent. Tencent mini-games are web-based mini-games that can be enjoyed on China's national messenger, 'WeChat'. They can be enjoyed without separate downloads or installations and have social functions, sharing similar characteristics to the KakaoTalk games we are familiar with.

CEO Jang said, "Mobile gaming is a field where China is doing very well. In fact, last year's global number one, 'Whiteout Survival', is known to have generated about 7 trillion won in revenue. They are called mini-games, but the genres are diverse. However, Apple and Google do not accept these games well. Accordingly, ONE store is proceeding with an exclusive contract and plans to launch top-ranked Tencent mini-games starting in July after a pilot service in May."

He continued, "Being ranked at the top locally means they have been selected as fun and good games in the massive Chinese market. One of the criticisms ONE store receives is its deficit, and I think Tencent mini-games will play the most decisive role in resolving that deficit. Since they are our exclusive content, once word-of-mouth starts to spread, users will naturally flow into the platform, and I believe this will have a significant impact on short-term performance."

That does not mean services for existing ONE store users and communities will be discontinued. The ONE store that existing game communities looked at was a 'benefit'-centered platform, well-known for active discount coupon and point-back marketing targeting subculture and MMORPG users with active game communities. However, after the acquisition, as Web3 games or blockchain-related elements were mentioned, some voices of concern emerged, asking, "Isn't it difficult to expect the same benefits as before?"

CEO Jang emphasized that marketing and benefits for existing users will be maintained, saying, "Of course we will give them. How can we leap into a platform while making it worse?" He continued, "We will continue to introduce ways to provide existing benefits more funnily. Rather than providing them only on specific dates as before, we intend to aim for a direction where benefits can be seen at all times. How we increase revenue is the next problem. We should not reduce what users want," dismissing the growing concerns.

Currently, the game industry is facing two massive technological innovations: development efficiency through AI and user asset ownership through blockchain. CEO Jang also mentioned the purpose of ONE store, saying, "As game production becomes easier with AI technology development, anyone will be able to jump into development in the future and countless games will pour out, but developers will be anxious because they cannot find a proper platform to distribute them. NEXUS intends to preemptively accommodate and distribute the countless content that will be mass-produced in the AI era, securing an exclusive position as an 'AI game platform'."

At the same time, to solve the distribution problem in the Web3 game market, they are also preparing to position themselves as a 'Web3 game store'. Existing Google and Apple thoroughly block the entry of Web3 games equipped with NFT or wallet functions due to bypass payments or failure to pass review, so there are too many gateways and inconveniences for users to use. It is possible to release them excluding those functions and then recommend conversion and wallet installation through a separate website, but this requires a lot of effort. To eliminate this inconvenience, NEXUS aims to attract Web3 developers around the world by providing a free ecosystem that fully embraces all chains, wallets, and even NFT exchanges within the store, targeting the global market.

The genres that will play the most core role in NEXUS's platform strategy are MMORPG and SLG. This is because for a Web3 system where users own and trade items to succeed, the in-game economic system must be highly developed and complex, and the genres that most perfectly meet this condition are MMORPG and SLG. The lineup that NEXUS is preparing for the global market is also tightly composed around these genres.

CEO Jang pointed out the reason why the combination of Web3 and MMORPG is important, saying, "Users are tired of the excessive spec inflation and value destruction of the Korean-style probability-based item model." He continued, "The essence of the anger that users have been protesting with trucks for the past few years was because of the structure where 'I spent millions of won this month, but a stronger item came out in a month, making my asset value worthless'," and made it clear that NEXUS intends to innovate the chronic business model of the game industry through Web3 MMORPGs where users can fully own and preserve the value of items.

In this context, he mentioned that the recently reported discussion regarding the acquisition of XL Games' 'ArcheAge War' IP is also true. CEO Jang said, "It is a matter under close discussion," and did not hide that it is an important card to increase the platform's content competitiveness. He made it clear, "Such discussions are being reviewed from a business perspective of platform expansion, and will change depending on the progress of the negotiations."

Furthermore, NEXUS is looking into entering a new genre called 'AI agent games', where AI agents learn, communicate, and engage in economic activities on their own. An example is 'ClawRoyale' (formerly MultiRoyale). ClawRoyale is an AI agent battle royale game released by NEXUS last February, where users do not directly control characters, but AI agents created by users establish strategies and compete on their own.

CEO Jang pointed out, "There are two big flows in the game industry right now. One of them is idle games. Idle games are games where I leave the parts I don't find fun to others and only perform the fun content. If this is replaced by LLM (Large Language Model), play becomes more diverse. Because they try various plays to achieve goals, not just fixed ones." He continued, "Next, as the time to play games decreases, the number of people watching games has increased. Idle games can also be seen as a type of that," emphasizing that AI agent games can also be effective as another way to enjoy games.

In other words, even in an existing MMORPG, it is possible to open a specific server exclusively for AI agents, where if a user gives an order to an agent, it automatically proceeds with hunting, trades items, and automatically builds an economic system. An unconventional attempt applying this was mentioned as an MMORPG being prepared by Advisor Song Jae-kyung. It is reported that the game is being developed with experimental elements, including elements where some users are humans, some are AI agents, and all NPCs in the game are applied with LLMs, each growing.

This confidence is based on the know-how accumulated through experimental titles such as ClawRoyale. NEXUS recently introduced a 'WebLLM' function to ClawRoyale that allows general users to easily create agents. This is a function that allows users to create agents using LLM on a webpage, whereas previously only developers could create AI agents through programming languages. NEXUS intends to collect such know-how and show a unique business direction called agent gaming on its platform that has grown as NEXUS.

CEO Jang said, "Last year, NEXUS turned a profit, and I think ONE store will also turn a monthly profit within this year. I think we can sufficiently show such a steadily growing appearance. In 2021, the stock that rose the most in Korea was Wemade. It rose about 16 times. We are expecting results beyond that, and we are doing our best to advance that point in time," asking for interest and attention in NEXUS's future leap.