Lee Jung-hun, CEO of Nexon's Japan subsidiary, urged Korean developers to "define artificial intelligence (AI) not as a competitor but as an excellent tool and means, and adopt an attitude of proactively making use of it." Nexon's management holds the view that while AI should be used as a powerful weapon for creation, the core competitiveness ultimately lies in differentiated intellectual property (IP) and the insight developers accumulate over long periods. This is interpreted as a strategy to maximize efficiency through AI while filling the essence and fun of content with the capabilities of human developers.
Speaking as a keynote presenter at the opening ceremony of the "Nexon Developers Conference (NDC) 2026," held Tuesday around Nexon's headquarters in the Pangyo area of Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Lee said, "AI is a revolution in creation and computation that lowers the cost of generating and analyzing information and content to near zero."
He drew a clear line regarding concerns in some quarters that AI would replace developers' work. "What AI is good at is 'work with predetermined answers,'" Lee noted, pointing out that "it cannot solve undefined problems, empathy between people, or the realm of connection that creates the emotion of crying and laughing."
He added, "Within games there exist stories and connections that users create together, and we must not forget that the intuition and empathy to read these belong to the realm of humans, not AI." His explanation was that the more work efficiency is maximized by AI, the more important the developer's discernment and judgment to control and guide it will become.
Kang Dae-hyun, co-CEO of Nexon Korea, who presented next, put forward "context capital" as the unique competitiveness Nexon can hold in the AI era. According to Kang, "context" refers to all the intangible assets accumulated around a game, such as the know-how and sensibility developers have built up over a long period, the relationships and memories users have formed, and the culture of the community. As an example, he viewed the phenomenon of numerous users flocking to Lotte World, which collaborated with Nexon's flagship IP "MapleStory," as a representative result that shows the "context capital" built up over a long time shining through.
Kang stressed, "The 'compound interest of context' and 'competitiveness made by time' — this is precisely the key answer we must hold in the AI era, when technical implementation becomes easier."
Nexon said it is reviewing new ways to use content related to "Crazy Arcade," a key IP whose service termination was recently announced after 25 years. Meeting with reporters right after his presentation, Kang added, "The existing service will end, but we are planning a new project that allows fans of this IP to enjoy it in another way," and "even after the service ends, we will ensure that the IP Crazy Arcade can continue to live and breathe and carry on."
