PRESS RELEASES
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WEBZEN’S GAME PORTAL, WEBZEN.COM BEGINS THE ARCHLORD SERVICE
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SEOUL, South Korea – July 16, 2009- WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ and KOSDAQ:WZEN) ) will begin the Archlord publishing via its game portal WEBZEN.COM taking after publishing of MU Online.
WEBZEN announced that NHN GAMES’ Archlord will be published, taking after its own publishing of MU Online on its way to start a comprehensive game portal on a full scale.
Archlord will be the second publishing title after MU Online. Currently, the game has been and still is in service in North America and Europe through its partner.
Archlord will be officially published/serviced for the users in South America and South East Asia beginning on this coming August.
Consequently, WEBZEN and NHN GAMES will open the teaser site (ARCHLORD.WEBZEN.COM) for Archlord on July 16th to announce its publishing at WEBZEN.COM, followed by preparation of the testing for its direct publishing service.
WEBZEN, upon revealing the Archlord teaser site, is planning on going through beta testing from August onward to finally commence its commercial services.
Also, WEBZEN has announced that it is in publishing service preparation for its own title Soul of the Ultimate Nation: World Edition as well as NHN GAMES’ R2 to be hosted at WEBZEN.COM within this year.
As a note, WEBZEN’s MU Online began its commercial services on the 26th of June after going through the open beta test in May. Currently, there are more than 100,000 active members who have officially registered at WEBZEN.COM.
Along with the commercial services of MU Online, WEBZEN has introduced the universal chargeable means called W Coin for the members to use within the game portal across the board. Hence, the members can use W Coin in Archlord to purchase in-game items as well as all other future game titles to be launched at WEBZEN.COM.
“In a mid to long term vision, WEBZEN.COM will continuously add premier games and eventually become a comprehensive game portal”, said Chang Keun Kim, the chief executive officer of WEBZEN. He further noted, “Games such as MU Online and Archlord respectively are only the beginning of WEBZEN.COM, en route to establishing itself as a comprehensive game portal with more games added within this year for our global members from all over the world.”
WEBZEN.COM is WEBZEN’s game portal intended for taking a role of Global Digital Entertainment Leader with its sole objective of becoming the comprehensive game service portal for all the game players around the world.
More details on WEBZEN.COM, the comprehensive game service portal, and the global publishing of Archlord are available at WEBZEN’s official website, WWW.WEBZEN.COM.
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July 16 2009
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GLOBAL MU ONLINE SEASON4, NOW OPEN
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SEOUL, South Korea – May 15, 2009- WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ and KOSDAQ: WZEN) announced that the Global MU Online service with a new realm will be opened on May 21st 2009. The decision came swiftly after seeing a successful first beta testing on last April enabling enthusiasts to experience the latest game content.
"We received a positive feedback from the beta test participants by showing a stable service and increased customer support.” said ChangKeun Kim, the chief executive officer of WEBZEN.
Unlike the previous beta testing where characters were wiped, users can now save their account and character won’t be deleted. To welcome all users, WEBZEN will provide a limited time only events such as 300% increase in experience gain and items combining to create the 1st class Wings.
The Global MU Online is going be free to play and the micropayment model will be introduced along with its in-game store shortly after. Furthermore, WEBZEN is reassuring everyone that the migration of current database will take place as announced. The current Global MU Online accounts are expected to be transferred into new realms in June.
MU Online has been introduced to over 100 countries since 2006. As the licensing agreement with K2 Network expires at end of May 2009, Webzen will host the Global MU Online through its online games portal. WEBZEN says the company plans to introduce 2 or 3 more game titles through its global game portal at www.webzen.com by the second half of 2009.
More details on Mu Online Global Service will be posted regularly on WEBZEN's global game portal webzen.com (www.webzen.com).
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May 15 2009
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WEBZEN’S GLOBAL MU ONLINE, SEASON4 BETA TEST
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SEOUL, South Korea – April 20, 2009- WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ and KOSDAQ: WZEN), a leading global online entertainment company, today announced the first best test for Global MU Online
WEBZEN will directly publish the global version of MU Online, which boasts more than 56 million registered users, in the first half of 2009 via Webzen’s ‘Global Game Portal’ (www.webzen.com)"
Namhun Kwon, WEBZEN’s representative, said that the top priority for Webzen right now is direct users to a smooth transition where WEBZEN is coordinating with its publishing partner in regards to migration of the current database to transfer characters and items.
WEBZEN with extensive experience and knowledge operating many online MMORPG games has previously hosted the Global MU Online server in 2003 and is expected to provide end-user oriented services and customer supports as well as bringing stability into the game.
"You can expect a better service since the company that has been developing the game for many years is now operating the global server. MU Online has a world-wide user base and we are planning on providing a stable global service for them. Our new global game portal webzen.com is going to be a communication link for our customers throughout the world", said ChangKeun Kim, chief executive officer, WEBZEN Inc.
The publishing territories include North and South America as well as major countries in Europe and more, however, not including those countries which have been serviced through local publishing partners, such as China, Taiwan, Japan, Philippines, and Vietnam
To celebrate the opening of Global MU Online – Season 4, WEBZEN will enter the first beta testing from April 28th to April 30th. Registered users can sneak peak at the latest version of Global MU Online.
Upon request, all participants will receive a customized character to better experience part of Season 3 and Season 4 contents of Global MU Online like master level and quest maps such as "Illusion Temple" and "La Cleon” which have not been exposed to Global MU Online users.
The beta test application can be submitted through webzen.com from April 21th to Apr 26th. Users can sign up for ‘webzen.com’ account and have an option to choose character class and starting level.
More details on Mu Online Global Service will be posted regularly on webzen's global game portal webzen.com (www.webzen.com).
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April 20 2009
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WEBZEN AND NHN USA EXECUTES HUXLEY™ LICENSING AGREEMENT FOR NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE
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SEOUL – May 19, 2008 – Global online entertainment company WEBZEN Inc. (www.webzen.com) announced today that it has executed a licensing agreement for North America and Europe with NHN USA (www.nhnusainc.com) for Huxley™, the next-generation MMOFPS game.
In a landmark deal worth a total of $3 million with an advance and a minimum guarantee, NHN USA will be bringing Webzen’s highly-anticipated Huxley to North American and western European markets in 16 countries, including U.S., Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and France.
The companies plan on leveraging Webzen’s outstanding development capabilities and NHN USA’s significant game publishing experience to create synergy in providing the optimal Huxley experience in the overseas markets.
“We are extremely excited about working with NHN USA, a company that has had phenomenal successes with publishing numerous games, as we enter the North American and European markets,” said Nam-Ju Kim, chief executive officer of Webzen, Inc. “And we’ll continue to refine Huxley even further to exceed the high expectation of gamers in North America and Europe.”
“By ensuring great playability and a systematic localization process, we’re expecting a highly successful launch of Huxley in the Americas and western Europe, both of which are considered the ‘home’ of FPS games,” said Koongwhon Nam, chief executive officer of NHN USA. “Huxley is an integral part of our unwavering commitment to bring Korea’s very best online games to the world through ijji.com.”
Their enthusiasm for Huxley echoes the nonstop North American game industry buzz of anticipation for the game – an honorable mention in Game Informer’s list of Top 10 Games for 2008, the most searched FPS game in April on North America’s premier online game magazine IGN, and sharing the top 2 spots on the same site with Starcraft 2 for all game genres.
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May 19 2008
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WEBZEN’S SOUL OF THE ULTIMATE NATION ENTERS COMMERCIAL SERVICE IN JAPAN
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SEOUL, South Korea and TOKYO – April 21, 2008 – WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: WZEN), a leading global online entertainment company, today announced that Soul of the Ultimate Nation, the epic fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has entered commercial service in Japan through a partnership with publisher GameOn.
Soul of the Ultimate Nation’s commercial launch in Japan marks the fourth such release for the MMORPG, following similar launches in Korea, Taiwan and China. Open beta testing for Soul of the Ultimate Nation in Japan began on March 24 and recorded more than 10 thousand concurrent players after just two weeks in beta service. Leading into the live launch, WEBZEN and GameOn collaborated on server stabilization and final stages of localizing and updating content for the local market.
Soul of the Ultimate Nation incorporates a micropayment model popular to many Asian online games. GameOn will also be releasing Soul of the Ultimate Nation DVDs in retail, with special bonus features such as the game client and DVD-only special in-game items and micropayment points.
WEBZEN’s Soul of the Ultimate Nation revenues in Taiwan and China have eclipsed earnings from Korea, the first market to see the game’s commercial release. The MMORPG’s momentum and success in Japan has prompted WEBZEN to look into that market for future product releases and explore the opportunities for Soul of the Ultimate Nation’s entry into additional territories.
“Soul of the Ultimate Nation has seen a number of great upgrades and content updates since its release in Korea, and we are really proud that it is so widely enjoyed by players in China, Taiwan and Japan,” said Nam-Ju Kim, chief executive officer, WEBZEN Inc. “We look forward to Soul of the Ultimate Nation’s continued success in the global market contributing to WEBZEN’s increased fiscal performance to reinforce our reputation as a leading global online entertainment company. Based on our success in Japan with games like Soul of the Ultimate Nation, we are confident that our pipeline of new services for that market will be well received.”
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April 18 2008