NEXON Co., Ltd. ($3659)

Thank you for joining us today for the NEXON Capital Markets briefing 2026. My name is Maiko Ara, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at NEXON, and I will be your moderator today. Now I would like to show you the agenda for today. First, Patrick Soderlund, Founder and CEO of Embark Studios, who assumed the role of Chairman of NEXON in February, will share our vision and discuss our initiatives to accelerate growth in global markets and transform our development processes. Next, Junghun Lee, President and CEO, will review our performance over the past few years, outline our growth strategy and introduce several highly anticipated new titles. After that, Shiro Uemura, Representative Director and CFO, will walk you through our 2026 overview and our shareholder return plans. Finally, Patrick Soderlund will deliver closing remarks. The presentation is scheduled to last 1 hour. After a short break, we will move to a Q&A session until 6:00 p.m. Following the Q&A, we will host a small reception. We hope you will take this opportunity to connect with our management team in a relaxed setting. With that, I will turn the program over to NEXON's Executive Chairman, Patrick Soderlund.

Good afternoon. I am Patrick Soderlund. And like many of you in this room, I'm an NEXON shareholder. I've spent my entire career making games and leading creative teams. I began at DICE, the Stockholm studio, which created the Battlefield franchise before being acquired by Electronic Arts. At EA, I oversaw more than 20 studios before leaving to start an all-new creative venture, which you know as Embark Studios. And shortly after NEXON invested in Embark in 2019, I joined the Board of Directors. That's me, 25 years, 2 start-ups and 2 tours of duty leading large creative organizations responsible for successful game franchises. Last month, I agreed to serve as NEXON's Executive Chairman, a newly created role responsible for strategy and creative direction. The reason I accepted this role is to provide NEXON with a clear strategy. Junghun will continue to run day-to-day operations. My job is to set the vision, instill cost discipline, evolve the creative process and push hard to achieve growth and profitability. That is all possible because NEXON has assets that nobody else does. MapleStory, Dungeon&Fighter and FC have something that is extraordinarily rare in this industry, decades-long relationships with players. These aren't games that people play once and move on. They're woven into people's lives, real communities, real friendships, memories that go back decades. You cannot buy that, you have to build it. It takes years and years, and most companies never get close. NEXON has done this with multiple franchises. But before we get into the details, I want to be clear about something. This is not a turnaround story. In 2025, NEXON posted record revenue of JPY 475 billion, operating income of JPY 124 billion. For 8 consecutive years, we have generated more than JPY 100 billion in operating cash flow. The MapleStory franchise just delivered the best performance in its 22-year history, up 43%. And ARC Raiders delivered the most successful launch in company history with more than 14 million units sold in 15 weeks. We ended the year with more than JPY 800 billion in cash and cash equivalents. And for our investors, we doubled the dividend and bought back JPY 97 billion worth of shares. Now that seems like a solid profile. So what does the market not understand about NEXON? I think the market isn't questioning what NEXON has. It's questioning what we're doing with it. And as a large shareholder, I'd say that's a fair question. As a veteran industry executive, I'll offer some answers. The product portfolio NEXON supports is too wide, too many projects running with a practical business case. Development costs have climbed and new games slipped their schedules, 2 dynamics which compound margin pressure. After a promising start, Dungeon&Fighter Mobile is moving in the wrong direction. Margins are shrinking and the pop we get from launching new titles doesn't stick. We have to figure out why. And then there's something bigger that has to change. NEXON has been too slow to make tough calls in an industry where the cost of indecision can be enormous. I also want to address another recent issue, a governance problem we moved very quickly to address. In January, we discovered a coding error in MapleStory idle RPG had been fixed but not reported to management or disclosed to players. The financial cost of our refund offer was significant. The reputational cost even worse. It actually exposed an operational breakdown we addressed with structural reforms, including a new Chief Risk Officer, mandatory dual track reporting and Board level oversight. This should never have happened, and we've taken the steps to assure it won't happen again. Today, the executive team who leads this company sit in the same room once a week and make all the decisions. We've been through the entire portfolio of both live games and new projects to determine which can meet or outperform our new floor for contributing margins -- contribution margins. Revenue assumptions are being stress tested based on realistic assumptions, not what we hope for. Costs are being scrutinized. Some projects will get more funding, some will be restructured and some will be canceled. We are also applying extra scrutiny to anything that is indirectly related to making or running games, including corporate G&A, shared services, infrastructure, management layers, support functions, contractors, everything. So in summary, fewer bets, more conviction behind each. Cost management and process improvements will be ongoing, but we're taking immediate action. One more glaring issue. NEXON has delivered an unfortunate set of surprises recently that damage investor trust, missed guidance, write-offs, operational failure. These reforms and new processes we're adopting is aimed at restoring your trust. And in that spirit, I want to address the 2027 revenue and operating income targets that were set at our capital markets briefing in 2024. As you may already suspect, those targets will not be met on our original time line. At the time, the logic was based on strong franchise momentum, a growing pipeline of new games and a real belief that scale would improve the economics. I was a part of that conversation, and I understood the case. However, those assumptions did not hold. On the revenue side, Dungeon&Fighter Mobile underperformed structurally rather than cyclically. New title time lines slipped and the revenue we expected for margin recovery didn't come through on schedule. Costs outpaced revenue as we expected a portfolio -- expanded the portfolio, sorry. HR platform fees, infrastructure, development, overhead, individually each felt justified. Collectively, they compressed our margins even as revenue hit record levels. That's a discipline problem. So the 2027 targets are not attainable on the original schedule. We recognize investors would like to see a restatement. However, today, just 1 month into the reforms I've outlined, we don't have the degree of certainty needed to guide 18 months from now. So I'm not going to ask you to believe in a number that the math doesn't support. What I'm going to tell you is that we have delivered a solid foundation for growth, JPY 800 billion in cash, 8 consecutive years of operating cash flow above JPY 100 billion. Since 2019, NEXON has retired approximately 150 million shares with the repurchase initiatives that have returned roughly JPY 380 billion to our shareholders. Franchises with 22-year player relationships that you cannot replicate regardless of how much money you throw at it. ARC Raiders finally proving that we can build something that lands with a western audience. On costs, we are resetting, not trimming, resetting every function being reviewed against one question. Does this directly contribute to making or running great games? If the answer isn't a clear yes, we cut. And any headcount requests that don't tie directly to that work are rejected. And to be clear, this is not about cutting everything to achieve a better margin. Some titles deserve more investment, not less. And we do plan to invest in all new opportunities, deploying capital toward acquisitions that meet one test. Can this become something that players build their lives around? The revenue growth is coming. The difference going forward is that it stays and it won't be erased by growing costs. Going forward, what we're asking you to track is straightforward. Margins that improve with scale, a product portfolio with every title earning its place and capital returns that reflect what this business actually generates. That's what we're building. It's probably a hard story to tell in a few slides, but it's a better business to be invested in. Now let me offer you some perspective on a topic you've heard from every company this year, AI. Every company has a plan. Most companies will probably get it wrong. They're committing big investments in tools, but tools won't help because they misread the challenge. AI may be a race, but the winners won't be the first movers. The winners will be the ones who understood the challenge. Think of game development as auto mechanics. The tools are available to everyone, but not everyone has the knowledge and experience to use them. That's where NEXON is different. We have spent 3 decades building a foundation that can't be bought, a foundation that can't be replicated without a lot of time. NEXON has deep franchise intelligence built on billions of player sessions across some of the world's longest running games. That's not a database. It's context. Context is decades of design decisions, the ones that worked and the ones that didn't. What retain a MapleStory player at year 5 versus year 15. Context is how the Dungeon&Fighter economy responds to a monetization tweak. That context, tens of billions of data points exist in our company. AI makes it usable at speed and at scale. Today, Junghun is going to tell you about Monolake. It's not a pilot program. It's a functional initiative that provides access to intelligence across every step of our development processes and live services. This obviously begs the question, how did a new studio like Embark succeed without all that context. At Embark, we started with a blank slate, questioning everything from how do you get from an idea to a green light to what needs to be done by hand versus what can machine do, and will do it more efficiently. Yes, some of that does involve AI, but it's really about encouraging people to use smarter processes, better tools and to let go of habits that no longer serve them. The initial outcome of that process is 2 games, THE FINALS and then ARC Raiders. 2 games built with significantly fewer people at a fraction of the cost you expect for a AAA game. Now our success wasn't an accident. It was deliberate. And now we're bringing the same thinking to the rest of NEXON. But let's be realistic. You don't take the playbook from a new studio and stamp it on to an established organization like NEXON, a 50, 60-person team building a new IP and a 300 to 400-person team running a live service and been running for 20 years do not work the same way. The point here isn't uniformity. It's that every leader team and individual in this company has to start asking how they can get more done with better tools, smarter workflows and less time on things that don't move the needle. This is an initiative that big companies rarely attempt. NEXON developers are meeting Embark colleagues to understand our process. They're taking a step back and look at how they work, not just what they're building, but how they're building. And when they open that door, surprising things can happen. People who have been sitting on an idea for years tend to speak up. Rather than waiting for orders from the top, team starts taking initiatives. We just needed to make it clear that, that's welcome. Now you don't transform a culture overnight. This will play out over years, but it starts now, and we expect you to see it soon. Before we finish talking about creative output, I want to take a moment to offer some context on what the success of ARC Raiders means to NEXON's business and our future. NEXON generates almost all of its revenue in Asia, specifically Korea and China. That's an incredible base, but at some point, it becomes a ceiling if you don't address it. ARC Raiders is the first real proof that NEXON can build something that lands with a global audience. That's not a small thing. It changes how the market should think about what this company can become. And the game is still early. It's live and the user base is growing. And what's ahead of it, it's probably bigger than what's behind it. Now some perspective on our approach to M&A. Beyond organic growth, M&A represents an opportunity if approached responsibly. We've all seen it go bad too many times in our industry. I watched it happen up close more times than I want to count. Yes, NEXON is watching for opportunities. But we're being smart about how we do it. We carefully evaluate deal structure, integration scenarios and whether the people who actually run the operation will stay to make it work. Every deal we evaluate runs through a filter. Will this result in a game or portfolio of games? Can the game build a loyal player community that lasts for years? Will the leadership team stay on? And it has to meet our margin requirements. If it doesn't pass through those filters, we walk away. We are looking, but we're patient and we are picky. I want to close on an important point and one that has become a particular strength for NEXON, the value of sustaining player communities. Now when you ask people how they relax and have fun, many will say, "I like football, I like baseball. I like basketball." And many people say, "I play video games." But there's a particularly passionate group who say, "I like Real Madrid. I like the Dodgers. I like the Boston Celtics." That affiliation, that community is foundational in the business model of professional sports. NEXON is unique in our industry. We are one of the few game companies that operates on that sports franchise model. For decades, millions of people have been saying, I play Dungeon&Fighter. I play MapleStory. I play FC. Building, sustaining, growing communities. It's not easy, and it takes investment and time. But communities are what makes Real Madrid, the Dodgers and the Celtics and NEXON so lucrative and so valuable for our investors. NEXON's best franchises already have that, players who never left, communities that sustain themselves, content and conversation happening way beyond the app. What we haven't done is to build on it with real intent, and that changes. We make the worlds inside our games deeper. We create more ways for people to experience our franchises no matter where they are and how much time they have or what stage of life they're in. We take the community and the content and the conversation happening around our games seriously, not as a side effect, but as a part of the product. And then we do it again, not with 2 franchises, with 3, 4, 5. That becomes the test for everything, portfolio calls, new investments, M&A. Can this become a lifelong passion for someone? Can we build a world around it that people don't want to leave? If the answer is yes, we go all in. If it's not, we spend our time and money somewhere else. Now I didn't take this job to tinker around the edges. I took it because I think NEXON can be one of the most valuable game companies on the planet. The franchises are already here. The players are here. The people are here. JPY 800 billion in cash is here. It's a solid foundation built over many years by a team of very visionary leaders. What was missing in recent years was the willingness to move fast and make tough decisions. That's changed now, and we're just getting started.

Thank you, Patrick. Our next speaker, NEXON's CEO, Junghun Lee, is a 23-year company veteran who spent much of that time in the studio, refining how games are made and importantly sustained. Junghun has been a key leader in developing NEXON's live services capabilities, the teams that manage everything from important tactical elements like player matching and cheat detection, game and mechanics and community management. We're extremely fortunate to have such an experienced executive running our operations. Here is the NEXON CEO, Junghun Lee.

Thank you very much, Ara-san. Good afternoon to our guests here in Tokyo, and welcome to others watching the webcast online. Patrick's candid assessment earlier captures where NEXON stands today. Now this afternoon, I am going to start with a straightforward assessment of our performance since our last CMB in 2024 with some recognition regarding what worked and what did not. Following that, I will review our blueprint for expanding established franchises and among our rich pipeline of new games, provide an update on 6 new games, which will provide growth in many years to come. So what I would like to emphasize throughout my intro and closing parts of my presentation is that NEXON has a very unique ability to sustain relationships with players. And I truly hope you will keep this in mind throughout my presentation as you listen. Now let me begin. Now I would like to start with a brief assessment of what did not work. Dungeon&Fighter Mobile launched with terrific momentum in 2024 then lost its way. The retention mechanics were not strong enough to hold players long term around the game. Same issue was there with The First Descendant. We have seen strong launch, but with no staying power. These are design issues that are not fixed with a quick patch. They rather require structural changes to game mechanics. There were also some delays in the development of new projects, and these resulted in shortage of top line growth. So what did go right? Well, actually, a lot. To start, we again demonstrated the resilience of our core franchises. In 2025, the MapleStory franchise achieved 43% year-over-year growth, the best in its 22-year franchise history. Now this was mainly driven by a solid recovery on the PC in Korea regional expansion of MapleStory Worlds and an all-new experience MapleStory: Idle RPG. Today, roughly 40% of MapleStory revenue is coming from outside of the core market in Korea, representing regional expansion. In the Dungeon&Fighter franchise, content updates contributed to a recovery on PC, delivering 30% Y-o-Y growth. Now this included double-digit revenue growth in China and more than 100% in Korea. Now that is a record in the game's 20th year in service. When it comes to the MABINOGI MOBILE that was released in 2025 in Korea, it delivered 4x Y-o-Y growth for this established franchise and demonstrated our ability to nurture growth in existing franchises. ARC Raiders represents a breakthrough in our ability to create global IP. Now this success provides NEXON with a creative and operating model that delivers market expansion at scale. This is a game changer that transforms us into a more diversified, durable and globally competitive company. Now, let us take a look at MapleStory in more details. It has now become the flagship IP in our strategy for unlocking growth with franchise expansions as well as a blueprint for company-wide IP growth. This blueprint actually began with a very simple question. In the past 22 years, tens of millions of players have touched the MapleStory franchise, but where are they now? Some never left the game, some got busy and their account went dormant. And then we have some users who drifted away, but still have fond memories of the game they grew up with, and then there are millions who heard about the game from their friends, but never played the game before. In light of this, we have developed a matrix to deliver experiences that speak to different cohorts, energizing the core, bringing back dormant players and attracting new ones. This matrix on the screen includes 5 different categories. For one, core expansion strengthens the PC experience. Classic expansion combines nostalgia with new mechanics like the UGC feature in MapleStory Worlds. Light expansion introduces a highly accessible casual experience and NEXON actually nailed that with MapleStory: Idle RPG. Frontier expansion experiments with all new concepts like the blockchain mechanics in MapleStory Universe. Definitive expansion offers a deeper, more refined experience for highly committed players. Another very critical element of the MapleStory success is hyper localization. This is a process that goes far beyond simple translation to adapt content to local taste in big markets and importantly, cultivates a sense of community. Our MapleStory results in 2025 show how this strategy unlocked growth in a franchise that has operated for decades. Let's now turn to the major services that make up the entire MapleStory franchise. First, I would like to talk about MapleStory PC. At the beginning of 2025, our priority was to restore the core MapleStory PC in Korea, that with content updates, live operations and community management to drive engagement and word-of-mouth trial. The great example of this was last summer's Assemble update. This update was highlighted by a major event in Seoul that attracted an audience of thousands. This update allowed us to build a meaningful tie with our users and confirmed how engaged our users are. For our UGC platform, MapleStory Worlds, it began with a simple insight that long-time players actually have a favorite era of their own, and they would like to see more of them. MapleStory Worlds gives players the game creation tools and assets like maps, character art and music to build their own personalized experience in this MapleStory. Now we believe this strategy is actually delivering. MapleStory World is now bringing lapsed players back into our franchise. In 2025, MapleStory Worlds achieved 7 million cumulative global users. In Korea, 81% of users are playing content inspired by earlier MapleStory gameplay. Among them, 91% previously played PC MapleStory and 61% first joined more than 15 years ago. Now our long-term vision for MapleStory Worlds is to evolve into a living ecosystem built around the MapleStory IP driven not by the company but by the community. Another expansion experience is MapleStory: Idle RPG that launched in Korea last year. As a title that falls into the light expansion category, its key features are soft entry, clear character progression and less friction. Now I think this concept is like short-form videos. So basically, it breaks the core MapleStory experience into shorter and more accessible gameplay loops. The impact of MapleStory: Idle RPG was both immediate and enduring. This chart on the game's demographic profile captures how it is attracting new audience. More than half of these users are new players with no prior experience of MapleStory PC or mobile, and they are generally younger. MapleStory: Idle RPG continues to demonstrate solid momentum and is proving to be a sustainable revenue contributor to the franchise. In 2026, the franchise is expected to deliver additional growth. For one, the Korea PC service will sustain its growth. Global PC service is also expected to grow through hyper-localization. Lastly, expansions of MapleStory Worlds and MapleStory: Idle RPG across additional regions and formats are planned. Let us look at how this MapleStory growth blueprint can be exported to energize another massive NEXON franchise of Dungeon&Fighter. In 2026, we have established 2 priorities for Dungeon&Fighter, improving the performance of Dungeon&Fighter Mobile and applying the MapleStory playbook with new games and experiences to energize core users and acquire new users and thereby expanding the entirety of our franchise. I'll start with the mobile game. To give a clear statement on the challenge, the sharp decline that followed in the 2024 launch in China is not related to quality issues. It's a design problem, a weak motivational loop that drains out the excitement and causes players to drop out. This is not a quick fix. The very first step to address this is hyper localization. However, simply adding more content will not improve long-term engagement. What we are doing at the same time is implementing structural refinement to the core combat structure and reward loops. So we are reinforcing this with a strengthened production framework through co-development with our Chinese [ polishing ] partner, Tencent, adding development resources with a deep understanding of local tastes. On the franchise expansion for Dungeon&Fighter, I would like to begin with the core PC game. We have scheduled a major new season for China in April, and we're preparing fresh in-game experiences like Battle Royale mode. To attract new players, we're simplifying the onboarding and early game experience. And like MapleStory, we are building a portfolio of franchise expansion. First up, we have Dungeon&Fighter Idle RPG. Like MapleStory: Idle RPG, this offers a big growth opportunity for the franchise with a casual and easily accessible experience. Dungeon&Fighter Idle RPG is scheduled for release this year. Next is Dungeon&Fighter Classic. This is a reboot of the 2009 game, which is widely considered one of the most exciting eras for Dungeon&Fighter. The Classic restores the original action-based experience in the modern UX and is scheduled to debut in 2027. We also have a multiyear strategy for introducing the Dungeon&Fighter IP outside of our core markets in Asia. The first game in this series is The First Berserker: Khazan. Released in 2025, it delivered a hardcore action experience tailored to Western audiences. Khazan demonstrated that the IP can travel globally. We are now preparing for its China launch, which will further validate its long-term potential. We also have Dungeon&Fighter Arad. This is a second initiative for expanding the franchise into new markets and platforms. Now in development for PC, console and mobile, Arad reimagines Dungeon&Fighter experience to attract a younger, more casual global audience. Let's take a look at an early concept video for Arad. [Presentation]

Next in the series is Project OVERKILL. This is an online action RPG for PC and console, which fully modernizes combat physics, visuals and overall presentation while reinterpreting Dungeon&Fighter's iconic raids, Dungeons and cooperative gameplay. Now early testing confirmed strong interest from the players. Now let me summarize. Our strategy for unlocking growth in the Dungeon&Fighter franchise spans multiple vectors altogether. On the platform side, we are embracing PC, console and mobile. On genres, we are diversifying from classic size scrolling to hardcore action to open world RPG to Idle genre. On regions beyond Korea and China, we are envisioning growth in global markets. Lastly, on player segments, we are widening our reach from core veterans to new and casual audiences. Let me move on to our next franchise. We have a similar plan actually for Mabinogi, a 21-year NEXON franchise experienced by more than 100 million people around the world. Actually, this franchise demonstrated its ability to scale with the launch of mobile game in Korea last year. Now watch for mobile -- MABINOGI MOBILE to release in Taiwan and Japan later this year and further ahead, all new experiences like Mabinogi Eternity that modernizes the core PC with a major engine update and Vindictus: Defying Fate, a modern PC and console action experience. Let's now take a look at Vindictus: Defying Fate with a short trailer. This trailer includes footage from existing Mabinogi Heroes and Vindictus: Defying Fate, which is developed on Unreal Engine, allowing you to see how the overall graphics combat and gameplay experience have evolved from the past to present. [Presentation]

Next is an update on our FC franchise. As you all know, 2026 is a World Cup year, which offers a solid opportunity to leverage the large and passionate community we've built around this franchise. Today, we are investing to create cross-platform synergies between PC, mobile and the Naver platform to maximize user contact point on top of the World Cup momentum. Naver is Korea's #1 portal and NEXON's partnership includes a new user acquisition initiative designed to link gameplay with other football content in a single unified flow, directing World Cup excitement back to our game. We will also collaborate with streamers who will broadcast World Cup matches on Naver's CHZZK, a streaming service with roughly 30% of live game viewership in Korea and enable users to access our games directly through the platform. Next will be some perspective on ARC Raiders. By now, you've seen the data and the fantastic launch and sustained momentum driven by frequent updates of new content. Recognizing the importance of sustained engagement, Embark launched the game with a full content plan, which has served to maintain player enthusiasm and drive further unit sales for the past 5 months. Looking ahead, there are multiple new projects in development at Embark Studios. While it's still too early to offer details, each has the benefit of the ARC Raiders playbook. This may include smaller, more nimble creative teams using new technology to simplify time-consuming, less creative work in order to focus on breakthrough innovation. ARC Raiders provides us with a road map for success in Western markets on consoles and with alternative pricing models. Beyond established franchises, our pipeline includes new IP, each with global potential. A great example of this is NAKWON: LAST PARADISE, a multiplayer survival game set in a post-apocalyptic city. We recently completed a closed off test with more than 37,000 concurrent players, a significant achievement for an all-new game with no marketing. We believe NAKWON has strong potential to compete in the global market, and we are preparing for 2027 launch. The NAKWON team in Korea has been meeting with colleagues in Embark. This exciting collaboration will help attract a global audience when the game releases in 2027. [Presentation]

Our full pipeline is highly promising. And today, we want to highlight 6 new games in development for 2026 and beyond. Each has potential to deliver sustainable contributions to profitability. Dungeon&Fighter Idle RPG, Dungeon&Fighter Classic, OVERKILL, Dungeon&Fighter Arad, Vindictus: Defying Fate and NAKWON. As a final note on the pipeline, I would like to touch on partnerships that grow our business. In addition to the EA partnership on FC, we manage multiple co-development and co-publishing agreements that expand our business. This has been particularly effective in China where NEXON's long-standing relationship with Tencent has supported Dungeon&Fighter for many years. And more recently, we have signed publishing agreements with Tencent to bring high potential NEXON games like THE FINALS, ARC Raiders and The First Berserker: Khazan to millions of new players in China. And yesterday, we announced an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment Group to publish their blockbuster Overwatch in Korea later this year. So that is a summary of just some of the near-term titles in our development pipeline. We are excited to share our progress in more detail in the months ahead. Before I finish, I would like to provide some detail on the AI strategy that Patrick mentioned, specifically our implementation of the Monolake initiative. This represents an end-to-end step change in how we create and support our games. NEXON has used AI tools for some time, and we are quickly moving fast to the tool level to apply context to everything we do. Monolake makes the intelligence available across everything we build and operate. Every developer, every live ops team, every product decision has access to the base of information we've accumulated over decades. AI without contact is just speed, faster output of a generic outcome and tools that know nothing about design history, player behavior or innovation. Without context, AI is a race to the arithmetic middle where everyone's game look the same. That's not a competitive advantage, but that's noise at scale. Then how do the lessons of ARC Raiders factor into this? Beyond the breakaway commercial success, ARC Raiders is a Trojan horse, a gift that contains a shift in the mindset about how technology frees developers and live service teams to spend more time thinking and less time typing, more time innovating and less time writing code. This changes how people work. The tools they use, how fast they can move and what they can accomplish. But what goes into our games, the creative content our players actually experience will remain the work of our developers. Our methodology doesn't replace creative people, but it frees them to create with context. Today, our best people spend more time making creative decisions, decisions guided by context and context based on billions of player decisions, context that precious few companies can match. And we are now nearing the end of my presentation. So I want to highlight my message once again at this point. Everything I've presented today, franchise expansion, hyper localization, platform diversity, a pipeline of new IP. This all adds up to the same thing. NEXON is building relationships with players that last far beyond the point of sale. People who left years ago are coming back and new players are finding their way in. We help players build and sustain communities. And also, we help those communities to grow and expand. To enable this, the content that NEXON creates must answer this one question. Can this become a lifelong passion for someone? An IP portfolio anchored by enduring brands and 6 new titles in development. They are all part of pipeline built around this one question. And finally, the division of labor in our executive team is clear. Vision and strategy from Patrick and execution and results from me. And you'll see it in the numbers. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Junghun. Next, our CFO, Shiro Uemura, will walk you through how initiatives outlined by Junghun translate into our financial framework and priorities for 2026 and review shareholder returns.

Good afternoon, everyone. As Patrick and Junghun have outlined, we are entering the next phase of NEXON's evolution. Building on their remarks, I would like to review our recent financial performance and then outline how we are approaching 2026 under the new operating model. I'll start with a look back at our recent performance. In 2025, we achieved record high full year revenue of JPY 475.1 billion. The growth was driven by renewed momentum in our flagship games, MapleStory and Dungeon&Fighter PC, along with the incredible success of ARC Raiders and meaningful contributions from new games, MABINOGI MOBILE and MapleStory: Idle RPG. However, operating income remained flat due to increased costs, royalty expenses, platform fees, cloud fee, marketing expense, HR costs and the impact of the large revenue deferral out of 2025. Our growth initiatives have helped to diversify our portfolio in recent years, but operating income and margins haven't kept pace with higher HR and variable costs. As Patrick explained, we are doing a full review of our product portfolio and implementing cost discipline to ensure that each product meets minimum margin contribution levels. Beyond incremental efficiencies, this exercise is expected to deliver structural profitability with a greater percentage of revenue translating directly into higher margins and profit. These initiatives and a renewed sense of discipline are expected to significantly strengthen our financial profile. While the initiatives will take time to unfold, we're moving fast. And in 2026, we expect year-over-year growth, both in revenue and operating income. We also expect improvement in operating income margin primarily due to the deferral of ARC Raiders' revenue from 2025 into 2026. With that understanding, I'll walk you through our major franchises, combining a brief look back at performance in 2025 with our directional outlook for 2026. In 2025, MapleStory franchise delivered strong 43% year-over-year growth and achieved record high revenue in its 22nd year, driven by the solid recovery in PC and the successful franchise extensions of MapleStory World and MapleStory: Idle RPG. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect the momentum to continue with solid double-digit year-over-year growth for the franchise to reach another record-setting full year revenue. Driven by content updates and hyper localization, we expect the PC version to grow modestly on top of the significant growth we achieved last year. We anticipate MapleStory Worlds will remain stable and MapleStory: Idle RPG to significantly contribute to the franchise's year-over-year growth. Next is the Dungeon&Fighter franchise, which achieved strong growth in 2024 from a mobile launch in China, but a decline in 2025 despite a strong recovery in PC service. In 2026, we expect a mixed performance with a stable trajectory for the PC game and a rebuilding year for mobile, resulting in franchise revenue to slightly decline from 2025. We expect a new period of growth to begin in late 2026 with franchise extensions like Dungeon&Fighter Idle RPG game and continue into 2027 and beyond with Dungeon&Fighter Arad, OVERKILL and Dungeon&Fighter Classic. The FC franchise tends to follow revenue cycles aligned with the World Cup, such as the tailwind from the 2022 Cup that drove record-setting revenue in 2023, followed by declines in 2024 and 2025. This year, we expect the World Cup to drive single-digit year-over-year revenue growth. prioritizing expansion and enthusiasm in the player base over short-term monetization is expected to help sustain these gains beyond 2026. Taken together, we expect revenues from our 3 major franchises to deliver single-digit growth collectively in 2026 from the JPY 331.5 billion base in 2025, driven by continued MapleStory momentum and World Cup tailwinds for FC. Moving to emerging franchises and new games. 2025 revenue grew 25% collectively driven by the launch of MABINOGI MOBILE and the global smash hit ARC Raiders. Looking ahead in 2026, we expect the collective revenue to grow in the strong double digits. We expect the Mabinogi franchise to show revenue decline in 2026 with a stable performance in the PC game and normalization of the mobile game following a strong launch in Korea in 2026. Later in the year, we will introduce the mobile game in Japan and Taiwan. For ARC Raiders, the premium price model concentrates revenue close to launch. However, driven by content updates, the game has shown great durability in sustained sales. Although the game faces tough comps from the launch in 2025, cumulative unit sales will continue to scale, providing a larger base for in-game sales. Now let me turn to cost structure, which is central to our transformation. I'll start with fixed costs. With strict oversight and reallocation of resources, we will ensure disciplined hiring and management of HR costs. Our outlook for HR costs in 2026 is roughly flat year-over-year. This implies a decline in HR costs as a percentage of revenue and will contribute to improved profitability. Also, we expect marketing costs to remain in line with last year. Our approach to managing variable costs begins with a structural change that reflects the globalization of our business. Historically, a significant portion of our revenue came from China and Korea, expanding our business with a greater percentage of products offered globally incurs additional costs for third-party distribution, particularly platform fees. Similarly, costs related to cloud service are expected to rise, reflecting the global service of our live games and the growing amounts of data using games. These are industry-wide trends, which we will rigorously evaluate with our cost management lens, scale efficiencies and ROI discipline. And finally, royalty expenses are expected to increase in response to the revenue growth in the FC franchise and for third-party development of MapleStory: Idle RPG. Let me be clear, 2026 is the first year of our transformation, representing the first structural step toward margin expansion. Our transformation priorities in 2026 include, one, restore Dungeon&Fighter Mobile. Two, sustain MapleStory franchise growth. Third, leverage World Cup enthusiasm with our FC community in Korea. Fourth, cost discipline for structural profitability and a stronger financial profile. Fifth, to build a stronger organization with the implementation of a strict ROI-based review into game development. By doing so, we aim to create a structurally stronger earnings model, one that enables sustainable growth. Next, I'd like to discuss our approach to shareholder returns. Since 2019, NEXON has returned approximately JPY 380 billion to shareholders through share repurchases and retired roughly 150 million shares. Our formal shareholder return policy has been to return to shareholders at least 33% of the previous year's normalized operating income. In practice, we have consistently exceeded that commitment, returning JPY 85.9 billion, 79% of the previous year's operating income in 2023, JPY 70 billion, which is 50% of the previous years in operating income and in 2024 and JPY 132.6 billion, which is 95% of the previous year's operating income in 2025, each of these much higher than our stated policy. Importantly, this includes both increased dividends and large-scale share buybacks. And in 2025, we doubled our dividend from JPY 20.5 to JPY 45 per share and executed nearly JPY 100 billion in share buybacks. For 2026, we plan an annual per share dividend of JPY 60. Beyond the dividend, we believe in NEXON's current share price does not fully reflect the fundamental value of this business. We're actively evaluating the appropriate scale and timing of additional capital returns, therefore, and we expect to have more to say in the near term. Also, we maintain our ROE target of at least 10% and aim for 15% or higher over the medium to long term. Through disciplined investment and consistent capital returns, we're committed to improving capital efficiency and enhancing its shareholder value over time. Let me close with a brief summary of what I presented today. we consider 2026 to be year 1 in a dramatic transformation, a year of a focus and a discipline on our core assets, our creative process and our costs. And for our shareholders, we plan an annual dividend of JPY 60 per share and remain committed to meaningful capital returns that reflect both our cash generation capability and our conviction in the value of our business. This concludes my presentation. Thank you.

I want to close with some context that goes beyond what we've shown today. The games industry is in the middle of a shift unlike anything we've seen in 25 years. How games are built, how they run, how they connect with players. It's changing faster than most companies can adapt. And history is pretty clear on what happens in moments like this. The breakthroughs come from the companies that see the change early and have built a business that captures the change and delivers something real. NEXON is in position to do exactly that. We have the resources, JPY 800 billion in cash, 8 consecutive years of operating cash flow above JPY 100 billion. We have 3 decades of context, franchise intelligence, player relationships, design decisions that worked and that didn't work across some of the longest running games in history. That's not a database. That's institutional knowledge that can't be replicated regardless of how much capital is deployed against it. I can tell you that we have the hunger. This leadership team knows exactly what's at stake, and we're moving with a sense of urgency this company hasn't had in a while. Resources, context and hunger right now at exactly the moment when the industry is shifting, that's a rare and valuable combination. What you've heard today is the beginning of that story, not a cleanup operation, a company that has decided to move with more conviction, more speed and more discipline. Now I've spent a large part of my career starting things, DICE before Battlefield, Embark before ARC Raiders. I know what it looks like when a team decides to stop defending and start building. That's where NEXON is today, and we're just getting started. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Patrick. We will now take a short break until 5:15 p.m. The Q&A session will begin at 5.20. So please return to your seats by then. Apologies, so the break will be until 5:20. We hope you enjoy the short break. Thank you. [Break]

We will begin the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] We will try to get to everyone's questions, but we need to finish promptly at 6:00 p.m. And finally, please note that we are not providing any updates on NEXON's first quarter performance. So thank you for understanding, we cannot answer any related questions. Let's get started with the first question. So I'd like to ask that the person at the back of the room, please.

I would like to ask question in Korean. So great work, everyone for '25 and '26. And I would like to take a brief look back on 2025. So last year, what was kind of an overarching theme or direction that penetrated everything NEXON did last year. And then I wonder what kind of results you were able to gain. And was there any kind of lesson learned from it? How is that applied to 2026 objectives?

Sure. I think I will be able to answer this question. So some of the lessons learned, takeaways from our 2025 and how it can be applied to '26 and beyond, I believe that was the intention of your question. So first off, even at this point, some of the key focal points remain, which includes sustaining our key franchises and how we can turn those into evergreen franchises. We have been putting much thoughts into it. We are putting strategies for it, and we are executing them. And for that, we have spent much of our time. Actually, I believe those efforts have been translated into the MapleStory playbook, which is a representative and the best case scenario for our IP franchise expansion initiative rather than a single title sustainability. Going forward, we will focus on our franchises so that those durable and enduring evergreen franchises exist in a multiple manner throughout our portfolio. So for 2025, through MapleStory franchise, I believe we have learned a lot, validated a lot and executed a lot for this initiative. And that concludes my answer. Thank you very much for your question.

I would like to go to the gentleman at the center.

It's Seyon Park from Morgan Stanley. I have 2 questions. The first question is just on the longer-term guidance, which I think the CEO had presented 2 years ago, where at the time, it seemed quite aggressive in terms of your targets for revenue. And I think the message was that the company would be spending more of the resources to expand IP development capacity and the like. Is the message today that we should be now basically ignoring that target and that the company is pivoting to be more focused on cost and efficiency and less so on a wider capacity, I think, is the first question. While I have -- I guess just a second question that's more for Patrick. And it's really to AI. You talked about how every company is talking about using AI, but not many companies will get it right. I think, unfortunately, for many investors who are not familiar with games or game development and coding, we have maybe even just a fear that AI will disrupt everything. So it's not just people and talent and creators using AI, but just AI disrupting even the creators is, I think, a bit of an excessive concern that investors may have. So I kind of wanted to get your thoughts on how we should be thinking about this and whether this is something that is really a threat to the game industry.

I will be able to answer your first question. For any complementary comments, I would invite Patrick and Uemura-san to add their takes on it. So 2 years ago, in 2024 Capital Markets Briefing, it is true that I have laid out some aggressive and ambitious goals. So ever since our establishment, that was our very first Capital Markets Briefing. And now I recall the intro that I gave back then. So I asked investors to focus on the sustainability, the transparent communication and long-term communication, and that is the intention of doing CMB. Same goes for this year's CMB, bringing candor to where we are standing right now, I believe that is the beginning of transparent communication. Of course, there have been some things that went off from what we have anticipated. Despite the successful launch of some titles like Dungeon&Fighter Mobile and The First Descendant, the profit and revenue did not last. And there were some delays in some new title development. Those factors combined, today, we are transparently saying that we are resetting those targets. So however, in 2024 and 2025, we have achieved a lot as well, and I'd like to draw your attention to it. MapleStory franchise is continuing its growth. And then we have an all-new IP, ARC Raiders, and this has gained a huge success in Western, which is pretty new for NEXON, to be honest. I think we can grow further. I think that is a good statement to make. But we haven't achieved the intended amount of growth within the set time line that we laid out. Rather, I would like to highlight that our IP growth initiative has advanced. It has been more detailed out. And based on some of the failures that we have done, we are applying those lessons learned through postmortems so that our new titles can bring more sustainability going forward. So all those cost reviews and those efforts are being done. But instead of setting that as our focal point, please consider this year as a year for reconsideration. And including Patrick and myself and all the executive team, we are confident about our long-term growth.

And I'll try and answer the AI question as best I can. Artificial intelligence, I think, is affecting all of us in some shape or form today, independent of what job you're in or my kids use it every day for school, I guess. I'll try and give you some perspective on the games industry and how I think -- how we think about it in 2 ways. The first one is the implication of artificial intelligence in how we work. I think it's important to make it very clear that it's not about replacing headcount or people. It's not about automating video game development. I think AI is good at certain things. Yes, it's true that something like coding is changing. A coder today can probably do 3, 4, 5 different things at the same time. And when he goes home at night, there's still coding going on. There's nothing wrong with that. That's an efficiency gain and improvement for us being able to be focusing on the things that I think have a better player-facing kind of point. I think being able to do the things that matter more to players gives us a creative freedom to build better products. So it's going to come in many shapes and forms depending on which role you have inside the company. If you make art, there are also instances where AI will help make art faster, better. It doesn't remove the need for a great artist or a stunning programmer or a good designer. Those people are still needed. But it changes how we work. So that's number one. Number two, I think, is going to be maybe even more fundamental. A company like NEXON need to think about what artificial can do to our games. And that's where I think scale matters. It's true that artificial intelligence will make it possible for smaller game teams to build bigger games. I think that's clear. Our edge is the size, the context we spoke about, the amount of data we have and the games, the types of games that we can build that others can't build. What does a world look like where the story is player evolving, where artificial intelligence helps guide the players into new directions. What does a world look like where player choices determine how economy unfolds or if a war breaks out inside the video game. It starts to become pretty exciting. So I'm not scared of AI. I'm excited about what it can do for us as a company. And to navigate this is what I mean, many people will probably get it wrong. We intend to get it right.

Person sitting in the middle, please.

A question for Patrick. So given the success of Embark Studios, so do you have plan to further increase the capacity of Embark Studios to further increase NEXON's exposure in Western countries? And I noticed that you mentioned you are not going to increase HR cost for 2026. So I believe it's probably not in the short term, but I would like to know your longer-term plan. And you also mentioned that you are going to use Monolake, so I'm wondering if like through the use of those kind of AI tool, you can further increase your capacity without increasing the number of employees you're hiring?

I think that's a thesis that we think holds that, yes, one thing that artificial intelligence and other ways of working can do is to get more out of the capacity we have. I think that's fair. I think that's our assumption. When it comes to Embark growing, there is some addition to have headcount in Embark, but not that many. Even a studio like Embark are now questioning how we work and if we can do things smarter and quicker and what we can do. There's also 2 new games in development at Embark today. They're very early, and we're not ready to talk about, but there's more coming from Embark. Do you want to add something, Junghun?

Yes, of course. So we are hearing many questions regarding artificial intelligence, and I believe Patrick has given some great answers regarding our philosophy or our direction. I would like to speak more of some of the practical perspectives into it. So when it comes to games generating -- using Pixel art, generating massive amount of profit, I think NEXON is unmatched in that. As many games do, many games are now tilted towards 3-dimensional art. And of course, the demand for Pixel art naturally declines. However, when it comes to introducing AI to how it work, we are actually seeing some breakthrough in time spent in producing Pixel arts. But one thing to be clear is that reduced workload of -- manual workload of Pixel art is not translated to the reduction of workforce. So what we are focusing on right now is to make sure that our quality of Pixel production is heightened so that the way our artists work is changing. So practically speaking, from this year, we are actually producing art assets for Pixel arts using that. And in this new environment, our artists can now focus on more creative tests, and I would like to draw your attention to that fact.

So let's go to the gentleman at the back.

Hello. I would like to ask a question in Korean. My name is [ Du Jon lee ] from Inven. So I would like to hear from Junghun and Patrick. From management's perspective, what do you see as the most critical challenges currently NEXON is facing right now? In particular, I would appreciate it if you could maybe divide them down to external market factors and internal structural factors. And I also would like to hear how you would define short-term issues and mid- to long-term missions.

Of course, I will be able to answer first, and we will be able to hear from Patrick as well regarding challenges, the external market circumstance and internal structural challenges, I believe those have been the key kind of content or ideas behind your question. So let me first begin with some of the challenges that we are facing. As we did in the past, right now, we believe globalization is a key mission for us. Building IP franchises, discovering them, nurturing them and making sure that they are beloved by all the users around the world is one of our most important long-term missions. For the external kind of circumstance, I would like to take a higher-level take. So basically, game business is about -- games business is about taking more share of users' time. So from a competition standpoint, our competition may be short-form videos, OTT streaming films even. So basically, I think games should be fun. That is the core essence of what games are. And of course, including myself, the entire company is spending much time making sure that the games that we build are fun. So when it comes to some challenges that arises from internal structural aspects, I think the IP franchise expansion playbook proven through MapleStory should be applied to other franchises, including Dungeon&Fighter, ARC Raiders and Mabinogi. So I think making sure that, that is transferred to other franchises is the most important short-term mission.

I would agree. I think the -- to me, it's relatively straightforward. NEXON is a company with incredible products. When I saw the number, 43% up year-on-year on MapleStory after 22 years, I can't think of a single company in the world that makes video games that have had something like that happen. That is an extraordinary achievement. Our goal is to make sure that all our live games are operated at the right type of efficiency and that they're bringing joys to players out in the world. That's number one. We're been very honest with the fact that our new games, we've been better lately. But in the past, we have struggled sometimes to get new games to work in the market. You have to look at why that is and get better at doing that. We've become a lot better, but we need to be even better. And then thirdly, it's about the expansion strategy that Junghun pointed to. That is if that works, and we think it can on other franchises, that's a growth generator for us. That's going to be substantial.

The woman sitting in the back, please.

I have 2 questions altogether. I am from Morgan. And I have questions to Patrick related to AI. I understand that Embark Studios is using AI, and I want to ask about that. So based on the AI text, efficiency improvement and also you can maximize on creativity. So those are the 2 points that can be attained by AI. And we tend to focus on the efficiency improvement because that's easier to understand. And I remember the first video I saw related to Embark Studio, and you mentioned that using AI, you can reduce the development time by 1/3, and that was so impressive. And however, it took some time for you to launch a new title. And in terms of ARC Raiders, actually, the actual development fee was more than JPY 10 billion. And I know that you are going through the development of new titles. And I guess the time is right for you to come up with AI-based new titles. But then listening to creators talk about it, they said that they are using less time for the development. And -- but then they end up actually using the leeway time for other processes that are already in existence. And so it does not really lead to the new creativity. That's what I hear. But then is your final goal, the improvement of creativity or the improvement of efficiency? That's my first question. Do you mind if I move on to the second question?

Yes. Maybe we should tackle one question at a time.

The beauty of what we do is that it's not digital. It's not -- it is, but it isn't. You can't necessarily put a number on creativity. And that's why I love making games. That's why I've been doing this for such a long time. To me, it becomes a question of -- and yes, did ARC Raiders take longer than we wanted to? I agree with that. And we're not going to go into the reasons why. But is it a fair point you make that we should be able to build games quicker? To some extent, I think you're right. But it's going to be about the creative aspect of where games are going is going to be a bigger one. We can make games that players don't know they need, if that makes sense, but we think they need. We can make games that are very different than what you'll see today. That evolution and innovation in our industry, it's what's going to generate the big growth. Yes, there will be efficiency gains. Yes, there will be other types of aspects to maybe we can make the game slightly quicker. But making games is an inherently creative process. We cannot forget that. That's what I meant about it. You can't put numbers on everything. I know maybe you guys want to, but we can't. We're bound by the fact that it's a creative place we work in and that we have to make games that people love to play for 22 years. That's where I think we'll see the biggest change in output from us.

Next question.

Okay, understood. So the second question, I would like one of you to answer. So you said that the cost strategy has changed. So you're going to increase the scale, but then you don't want the cost to increase in tandem to the scale. So Dungeon&Fighter and ARC Raiders, it seems that when the scale of revenue goes up, then HR cost goes up in tandem. And in terms of Korean game industry, is that the norm? Is that the culture? And is that the way the thing is, so that is the only equation you can go by in order to gather more players. So I want to know how you're going to separate the scale growth with the cost increase. And maybe that is related to AI. So I guess in the past, you tended to conduct upfront investment that does not directly link to the profit shortly or in the short period of time. So can you talk about that?

So talking about the cost, I mentioned in my presentation that going forward, I believe that we can make ourselves more efficient, as mentioned by Junghun as well as Patrick. When you look at the current resources, we have not fully maximized on what we have now. A second point, which is related to our pipeline, it is too wide and broad currently. So even though we have already started it, we are going to review what we have in our pipeline. So we are going to reallocate the resources so we can improve our efficiency. We're not saying that we're going to restructure or conduct layoff, but rather, we are talking about reviewing the asset that we have so that we can operate it more efficiently. By doing so, we can enhance our profit.

I will be able to add my taste on it. Speaking only from the numerical perspective, NEXON has continuously achieved top line growth, but our margin has remained not as -- remains in a smaller scale, but not growing not as much. So when it comes to in the 2026, the overall cost review that we'll be doing, including HR costs, marketing costs, infrastructure and distribution fee. Actually, as we are diversifying our portfolio and we are going more globally, we did see some increase in some of the cost items that we did not see in the past. So what we are trying to consider is if there is any room in our cost base that we can streamline and bring more efficiency for. And for HR aspect, I would like to clarify 2 things here. Giving out bonuses and incentives to what was done well is directly targeted to the people who have contributed to the projects that have generated profit. We are not giving bonuses or incentives undermining our profit. So the key goal is to make sure that our creative top talent want to work for NEXON. I think that is the key motivation of making those people think so, and that is what we are trying to keep going forward. But what is aligned internally in terms of our HR cost is this discipline and principle that sharper -- the sharper it is, the stronger it is. So for new titles and new live services that we want to focus on, we will be able to expect more profit and maximize profit going forward. How that will be done -- how that will be executed in details, we'll be able to share more details in our future earnings calls and quarters.

So another question from another person at the center, please.

I would like to ask a question in Korean, from Daiwa Securities. As you have mentioned the financial targets that you have laid out 2 years ago do not seem valid anymore. And the growth in 2026 and those details that Uemura-san has laid out, I would like to confirm once again if that will be kind of a new basis for the company? And my second question is directed to Patrick. So in order to achieve growth, I wonder what kind of priorities you will hold for allocating the resources that you have. Perhaps it could be by region, perhaps it could be by IP or by genres or perhaps you might want to focus more on inorganic growth. So any takes on those priorities would be appreciated.

So like the CMB 2 years ago, I talked about this in '27 target. And regarding that. So ultimately, for us to become a global #1 entertainment company, we definitely need to hit those targets. But as we speak, we have had some successes and failures in what we try to achieve. And with the current time line, we are seeing that achieving those targets by '27 to be challenging. So we would like to revisit our plans with this '26 being the restarting point so that we can achieve these numbers at the earliest possible timing. So I know that these numbers are ambitious, but we'd like to bring ourselves to that level at the earliest possible timing as quick as possible. So we're not really thinking that those numbers are possible. It's just that we are not likely to hit them by the end of '27.

Organic growth and where the growth will come from. I think it's obvious that this -- NEXON is an Asia-first company. That's where the most people are. That's where the history sits, and it will remain so. We have quite a few new games in development in Korea. You saw NAKWON today is one of them, that we expect will generate growth for us as a company. Our job is to make sure that the games are as good as they possibly can be. So when they come out, players enjoy them and spend more time in them. Then the question of M&A, we spoke about that earlier. Of course, if we want to expand regionally, we can do that through organic growth, but that takes time and maybe it's difficult. Acquisitions and M&A is on the agenda. We just, as I said, have to be very disciplined about where to go and what to buy. And there will be -- we don't have anything to say specifically about that today, but we can more talk about our approach to it rather than anything specific at this point. But as I said, I'm confident in our ability to grow this company. I'm confident in the people that work here and the games we're building. And I think when we get that right, that should accelerate the company quite a lot.

Then a person sitting in the front, please.

I am Marisa of Okasan Shoken. I have 2 questions altogether. The first question is to Patrick. It's about Western studios. I know that you have much experience working for Western studios. But when you think about the Korean development team, what is the difference between them and Western studios? And what is the point that you evaluate? And I know that you are working together in collaboration to develop new titles. And what is happening right now? I know that globally speaking, you have a very rare development structure. So what is the excitement that you are feeling out in the side of the studio?

A big difference in how a studio like Embark works and how the Korean team works. One of the most exciting things that happened to Embark when we joined the NEXON family was that we got to learn a lot about what it means to run a live service. We had some ideas, but we didn't have the knowledge and the understanding of what it takes to build a long-term franchise. NEXON has been instrumental in helping Embark understand what it means to run a live service. At the same time, I think Embark's approach to game development, very design-driven, very player fun-focused and a slightly different approach, hopefully can bear some fruit at NEXON. So I think it's not a one-way collaboration. It's a 2-way collaboration that I think is very powerful if done right. sorry, there was something more that you asked me that I forgot.

Well, you mentioned about your strength, which is you have the context, which is being accumulated. And by merging your context and AI, what will happen? So if you can shed some color to what you're talking about, I will appreciate it.

Well, I think context, right? Context is 20-plus years of information that sits that we have, how players behave, what they do at certain points, what happens when we do certain things to games. And that's going to create patterns, patterns that we can act upon. When something happens, we can rely on our context and our AI systems to help us -- this has happened before, here's what you did then and what happened when you did this. So it becomes kind of a pattern recognition system that will help us make better decisions so that we make fewer mistakes and hopefully do things that are more fun for players to enjoy. That's the whole idea behind the context database or AI layer that we're building.

So let's go to the gentleman in the third row, please.

I'm from Samsung Securities. So I really enjoyed NAKWON's footage earlier in your presentation. I wonder what would be -- what is -- what you're most excited about in terms of the financial performance among the new titles that you have introduced. I think it is tied to resource allocation. So I'm asking this question. And then I don't think you have laid out some launch time line for Arad, Vindictus or other titles. If you could give us some details on that, that would be appreciated. And then for [ Uchi ] and DX, some of the non-mentioned games, what is the progress on that?

Yes, of course, this is Junghun. I would like to answer that question from my end. So preparing for the CMB, I really have been putting a lot of thoughts into what titles we really want to highlight in this event. But one kind of principle in terms of introducing our new titles is that the titles that we introduced and title that we highlight are those that will be coming up in the near future. So of course, there are abundant number of new titles that we're preparing. And for certain markets and for certain user cohort and user segments, how we can make better appeal, we are making everyday efforts in trying to figure out answers with Patrick and with the whole team. But basically, that is kind of the principle or criteria of selecting the new titles that we are showing. For financial potentials, I think they are all good, honestly. So pinpointing any specific title to have kind of greater potential, I think that would be inappropriate. However, when it comes to NAKWON, if we think about this testing that we have done recently, we didn't done too much marketing. But when it comes to key metrics, it has grown significantly versus the last testing that it has done. And then also, we -- in line with this global launch of NAKWON, we are working -- the Korea team is working closely with Embark team. And if we can see some meaningful synergies from it, it will be translated into significant accomplishments. So recognizing that potential, we are working closely with Embark team, and we are making our best efforts so that it can launch in a good manner.

And we'd like to take one question from the online platform. So [ Fuyama ] from Miyatsimi. So NEXON's IP is to be received by greater audience. I think the media mix is one of the very urgent matter, but we are not seeing any progress in that regard in the last few years. So Dungeon&Fighter and how do you think that you can actually grow these titles to evergreen?

Of course, I think I can answer this, but we may be able to hear further takes from Patrick on ARC Raiders. So the franchise strategy framework that we have introduced in our presentation earlier is a critical point when it comes to laying out the strategies for our games. For many different markets, many different age cohorts, there are a lot of different segments to it. Of course, having a single title satisfying everything would be ideal. However, we have confirmed through MapleStory case that diversifying through many different experiences to satisfy them is actually working, and it is a working strategy. So for our IP and our franchises, laying out different experiences will help us making them evergreen.

And then one more question by MST Financial Service, David Gibson, question. So Monolake, when are you going to be able to implement that in NEXON?

Regarding this direction, actually, this was being planned from a long time ago already when it comes to the actual execution. Actually, I will say that Monolake is kind of an overarching concept. It's an overarching project. If you look into some further details inside it, there are thousands and tens of thousands of different changes and different tools that we are executing. And we have seen some meaningful progress on some initiatives among them that can be delivering some meaningful fruitions in 2026. So it is already in progress, and we are already seeing fruitions.

And I guess we're coming close to the ending time. So 2 more questions from the venue, and then we would like to close. So let's go from that gentleman in front.

This is Fukuda from Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Lab. So globalization was cited as your -- one of the challenges. So how are you going to expand in the Western world -- is the other one question. So in the presentation document, ARC Raiders has been the foundation, be what I found in the presentation. So how are you going to leverage ARC Raiders? Where would be the down road that you're going to be expanding? So how are you going to leverage ARC Raiders in the Western countries?

I think it's fair to say that ARC Raiders is a success in the West already. We are obviously continuing to invest in ARC Raiders, both the game itself and the franchise. So we hope to expand that. Then we haven't had -- we hope that we can also take some of the existing NEXON games in development and through collaborations with Embark to some extent, help them reach a wider audience outside of Asia than we've had able to in the past. I think it goes the same way. ARC Raiders will -- is a part of our contract with Tencent. So we will get ARC Raiders out in China, hopefully, together with Tencent. And that's also a globalization expansion for that brand. So plus obviously, new games that we're developing both at NEXON and at Embark.

I would like to add one comment on to it. So not only for the Western region, NEXON up until now didn't have too much presence in Japan market. In order to expand our presence in Japan, we are preparing some titles that can bring strong appeal in Japan. So this kind of hyper localized Japanese version for Mabinogi Mobile is planning its launch in -- within this year. And then we have another title, Blue Archive, which is very strong in Japan. We have a new game that is being developed by the same creative team called Project RX. We are making diligent effort into it. And then just like Blue Archive, we do believe this title can perform and can deliver in Japan. So in order to expand our share in Japan, we are making efforts with very detailed plans in place.

It is time. So we would like this to be the last question, the person sitting in the back.

I would like to ask my question to Patrick. So in Korea, there has been some news articles regarding potential hiring freeze after your assignment appointment. So do you have any plans for workforce reduction?

Good question. A layoff is not in our plan. We put enormous value on the people that work at NEXON that come to work every day to make amazing games and amazing experiences for people.

It is time. So we would like to close this session. Once again, thank you very much for joining us today for the NEXON Capital Markets Briefing in 2026. We will now host a reception on the fifth floor, one level below. We invite investors and analysts to take this opportunity to connect with our senior management in a relaxing setting. There's no like opening remarks. So please reach out at your convenience, and we kindly invite you to proceed to the reception on the fifth floor and enjoy the refreshments and the cushions and the gift packages are for you to take home. Once again, thank you very much for all for joining us.