Nexon and Valve Partner to Launch Dota 2 in Korea and Japan

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NEXON Co., Ltd. (3659.TO) (“Nexon”), a worldwide leader in free-to-play online games, today announced an agreement with Valve Corporation, a leading entertainment software and technology company based in the United States, to publish Dota 2 in Korea and Japan.

“We are very excited about working with Valve to publish Dota 2 and build on the worldwide momentum of the highly successful franchise. We look forward to providing players in Japan and Korea the opportunity to experience this exciting new game”

Dota 2, developed by Valve with legendary designer IceFrog, is the sequel to the genre defining game that has become one of the most played games in the world and a leading title at e-sports tournaments around the world.

“We are very excited about working with Valve to publish Dota 2 and build on the worldwide momentum of the highly successful franchise. We look forward to providing players in Japan and Korea the opportunity to experience this exciting new game,” said Min Seo, CEO of Nexon Korea Corporation.

Gabe Newell, President of Valve Corporation, said, “Nexon, a company with whom we have a long and strong relationship, was clearly the right choice as a publisher to successfully deliver Dota 2 into the Korean and Japanese market. Partnering with Nexon will allow us to deliver Dota 2 to a massive audience of Asian gamers via a premium service.”

In Dota 2, the primary objective is for teams to destroy their opponents’ fortified strongholds by controlling a “Hero” character. Powered by the updated Source engine, Dota 2 will deliver amazing high quality graphics, advanced matchmaking and more while maintaining the perfect game balance aspects of its predecessor. Dedicated franchise fans can look forward to seeing the masterful work of famed Dota developer IceFrog, who is also contributing to the development of DOTA2.

NEXON Co., Ltd.　　http://company.nexon.co.jp/

NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”) (3659.TO) is a worldwide leader in free-to-play online games. Founded in Korea in 1994, Nexon developed one of the world's first graphics-based massively multiplayer online games. Nexon also pioneered the concept of microtransactions in the free-to-play business model, setting a new standard in which play is free, and users have the option to purchase in-game items to enhance their experience. Nexon currently services more than 60 online games in more than 100 countries and since its founding, Nexon has generated more than 1.3 billion player registrations. The Company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and its shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Valve Corporation

Valve Corporation is a game, software developer headquartered in Washington Bellevue since 1996. In 1998, FPS game, ‘Half-life®’ was released and drew attention of gamers worldwide. Since the launch, ‘Half-life ®', received over 50 ‘Best PC Game of the Year’, and the year of 1999, 2001, 2005, the bestselling game magazine worldwide, ‘PC Gamers’, awarded the game as the “Best PC Game ever”. Valve become recognized for its development capability by introducing ‘Counter-Strike ®', 'Half-Life 2’, ‘Team Fortress 2’, 'Portal 2'. Approximately 70 million copies of these titles were sold worldwide. Not only with its game titles, Valve is also known as the developer of popular 3D ‘Source ®’ game engine and services its online platform ‘Steam ®' for 50 million users worldwide. Valve is currently under development of ‘Dota 2’.

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