Patrick Söderlund, Nexon Japan Chair: "Nexon is indecisive... we will not increase headcount"

At a capital markets briefing, The Financial News reported that newly appointed Nexon Japan chair Patrick Söderlund signaled a sweeping overhaul of the company’s game portfolio and workforce structure.
At the briefing in Tokyo on the 31st, Söderlund said, "Nexon’s portfolio is too broad and lacks solid business cases." He added, "Nexon is far too slow and indecisive when it comes to making tough decisions, and the cost of that is significant."
He went on, "We will review the portfolio across both live games and new titles, then select projects that meet or exceed the newly established profit floor. Some will receive further investment, and some will be canceled." He stressed, "This includes all roles not directly tied to game development and operations, as well as support functions related to participation and infrastructure management."
Söderlund also addressed Nexon’s earlier goal of achieving 7 trillion won in revenue, saying, "It will be difficult to reach that on the original timetable." He explained, "At the time, we were confident that strong franchise performance, an expanded pipeline of new titles, and greater scale would translate into profitability." However, he noted, "In terms of revenue, Dungeon & Fighter Mobile has faced structural weakness, new releases have been delayed, and as the portfolio expanded, costs began rising faster than sales."
Regarding the probability controversy that arose in January around MapleStory: Idle RPG, Söderlund called it "a clear failure of management." He pointed out, "The code error was neither reported to senior management nor disclosed to users. The financial burden from refund measures was heavy, but the damage to trust was an even bigger problem." Söderlund added that to correct this, Nexon will introduce a chief crisis management officer, mandate dual reporting lines, and strengthen board oversight.
He also raised the issue of making the workforce structure more efficient. Söderlund said, "We are in the process of resetting our cost base, and this will amount to a reset of our organizational structure." He emphasized, "We will review every function under a single organization, and if the answer to the question ‘Does this contribute to making great games?’ is no, we will cut it and will not approve any increase in headcount."
Söderlund cited the low-cost, high-efficiency success of ARC Raiders, developed by Embark Studios, Nexon’s Sweden-based subsidiary that he headed. "This kind of success is not a coincidence but an intended outcome," he said, "and I want to apply that mindset across Nexon as a whole."
At the same event, Nexon unveiled a company-wide AI infrastructure designed to maximize development efficiency. Lee Jung-hun, CEO of Nexon Japan, took the stage as the next presenter and introduced "Monolake," saying, "Our goal is not to replace creative talent with AI, but to enable our key people to spend more time on context-based creative decision-making."
Nexon also revealed two titles that had not previously been announced: Dungeon & Fighter: Idle Growth and Dungeon & Fighter Classic, which is scheduled for release next year.
wongood@fnnews.com Joo Won-gyu Reporter