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Game Publisher Nexon has invested over $800 Million into gaming companies such as SEGA, Konami, Bandai Namco, and Hasbro, with more to come. The company is looking to invest in even more online entertainment companies, in a bid to strengthen its financial hold over the video game industry.

Nexon is a Japanese-Korean video game publishing company, specializing in PC and mobile titles. In 2020, Nexon became the largest gaming company in Korea and the third-largest in Asia outside of Japan, behind Tencent and NetEase. The publishing company is best known for its part in releasing MapleStory, which was developed in Korea and is still being serviced today.

As reported by VentureBeat, the publishing company released an official statement on its website today, stating that it had spent over $874 million investing in SEGA, Konami, Bandai Namco, and Hasbro. This is roughly half of the $1.5 billion the publishing company planned on investing into entertainment companies, as it first announced back in June of 2020. More investments from Nexon are on the way, although it’s unclear as to whether or not this money will be funneled into the same companies or into even more developers. As to the reasons behind these investments, Nexon has revealed that certain discussions were held with the companies prior to the investment being made. Additionally, Nexon has started a share buyback program following the success of these hundred million dollar investments. “These investments represent a good use of our cash in a low-interest environment and we are extremely pleased with the initial results,” CEO Owen Mahoney says in the statement, ”While leveraging partnerships was not a consideration in our investment decisions, we are pleased with the dialogue that has ensued with some companies.”

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Traditionally, in the gaming industry, big companies such as Microsoft buy out game development studios so that they can acquire them, but this time, Nexon is investing on a much smaller scale. These investments are supposed to be long-term, friendly investments, rather than moves to acquire the companies or even partner with them. Each of these companies was chosen by Nexon due to its ability to develop and sustain strong globally-recognized intellectual properties. Each company has also gained the respect of Nexon and the video game community.

Nexon continues to pull in money from its IPs MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter, staking up to over $4.8 billion in cash, as these two games have continued to pull in revenue years after release. In 2020, Nexon pulled in $2.7 billion in revenue. So far Nexon has made $297 million on these four new investments. It makes sense that Nexon would want to continue putting money into the sector following this turnaround, and the rising popularity of gaming due to the ongoing activity restrictions thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other companies are also starting to jump on the bandwagon, possibly indicating significant growth for the video game industry.