[THE INVESTOR] Smilegate Holdings, founded by South Korea’s fourth-richest person Kwon Hyuk-bin, is set for a pilot run of the firm’s latest massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Lost Ark” on Aug. 24.

On Aug. 18, Smilegate unveiled “Lost Ark,” which succeeds its previous hit, “CrossFire,” released nine years ago. It took five years for the firm to come up with “Lost Ark.” 

At the launch event, Jee Won-gil, CEO of Smilegate RPG said the firm was planning to launch the game overseas as soon as it finds ways to localize.

“’Lost Ark’ was developed as a game that goes beyond a mobile game. It was created to give users an experience they would remember, and this goes for users regardless of nationality,” Jee said.

Kwon, the founder of Smilegate, is currently worth a net US$4.9 billion. He holds the entire 100 percent stake in Smilegate, which is not listed.

Kwon was recently cited by Forbes as being the fourth-richest Korean, following Chairman Lee Kun-hee of Samsung Electronics, Suh Kyung-bae of Amore Pacific Group and Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics.

Kwon built his wealth based on the success of “CrossFire,” which was a huge hit in China. Kwon and his development team worked directly from China to localize the game for Chinese users. Favorite Chinese colors such as gold and red were used throughout, and characters were clad in traditional Chinese apparel. 




In 2015, “CrossFire” earned 1.5 trillion won (US$1.35 billion) in sales in China. Up to 6 million users were logged in simultaneously at one point. It also recorded the world’s second-largest volume of gross sales for a single mobile game after Riot Games’ “League of Legends.”

But because it has been almost a decade since Smilegate had a hit game, the firm has recently been undergoing heavy restructuring, with costs being cut and affiliates being reshuffled, industry watchers said.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com">jemmie@heraldcorp.com)