CHIBA, Japan — NHN (181710.KS) is accelerating its push into the Japanese market by activating a joint development structure spanning Korea and Japan. Rather than chasing large-scale projects or trends in specific genres, the company plans to concentrate resources on casual and puzzle games, its core strength, to build distinctive intellectual property.
"The basic direction for our new titles is to focus on what we do best," Kim Sang-ho, CEO of NHN's game business division, said at a press conference during Tokyo Game Show 2026, held on the 18th at the New Otani Makuhari hotel in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
While other major Korean game companies put large subculture titles front and center at this year's show, all three new games NHN unveiled are casual titles, including puzzle games. "NHN is a leader in Korea's web board game market and has strong competitiveness in the puzzle genre in both Korea and Japan," Kim said. "The tougher the market environment, the more focusing on your strengths raises the odds of success."
That confidence rests on a track record in Japan. NHN PlayArt, the Japanese subsidiary established in 2013, has produced a steady stream of local hits, including "Line Disney Tsum Tsum," which has surpassed 100 million cumulative downloads worldwide, "Yo-kai Watch Puni Puni" with 36 million downloads, and "#Compass."
"Puchipoyon of the Fantasy World," unveiled for the first time at the show, is the first Korea-Japan joint project to get underway in earnest since Chung Woo-jin took on the top post at both companies.
"This collaboration is not a one-off project but the fruit of business continuity between organizations in the two countries stretching back more than 20 years," Kim said. "The Japanese organization polishes the core fun and design of the game, while the Korean organization handles rapid implementation and validation without fear of failure."
Murakami, chief producer at NHN PlayArt who oversaw development, said the key strength was that staff from both companies were assigned to the actual project and worked in close coordination. "We have narrowed the gap between the Japanese approach, which values in-depth feedback, and the Korean approach, which pursues speed and efficiency, through personal ties and continuous communication," he said.
"Puchipoyon of the Fantasy World" is the flagship new title among seven that NHN PlayArt brought to the show, its first booth at the event in eight years. Asked about similarities to the earlier hit "Suika Game," Murakami stressed the differences. "Unlike Suika Game, chain reactions are central, and we have built in unexpected, elastic movement, so the play experience will feel completely different," he said. The company is also mapping out a roadmap to raise character recognition through cross-media expansion, such as animation production, and to feed that back into in-game storytelling.
"This project is an important stage for validating a process that combines the strengths of the organizations in both countries," Kim said. "We will apply the collaboration model established here across future projects to set a sustainable milestone for NHN's game business."
