The Korean billionaire Kim Jung-Ju founded the current gaming giant Nexon nearly 30 years ago and was a pioneer in MMORPGs. With online games like The Kingdom of the Winds and MapleStory, he shaped the genre and established the free-to-play model. As his company announced, Kim Jung-Ju passed away at the age of 54 in Hawaii. He struggled with depression.
This is the news: In a statement on Tuesday, Nexon announced that its founder Kim Jung-Ju had died in February 2022. At the time of his death, he was in Hawaii, USA.
It says:
We apologize for not being able to explain it in detail. All of his family members are devastated. The deceased received treatment for depression, which unfortunately had worsened recently.
Kim Jung-Ju is survived by his wife and two teenage daughters.
Many MMORPG fans played his games as children
What are the reactions? The head of Nexon USA, Owen Mahoney, said in a statement that he lost a friend and mentor, a man who had an immeasurable positive impact on the world.
Many fans in the English-speaking world remember “NEXUS: The Kingdom of the Winds,” an MMORPG from 1996, which was for many “their first MMORPG,” and came from an innocent time without microtransactions or subscription fees. This MMORPG is said to have been played by them as children, as mentioned on reddit, where they indulge in nostalgic feelings.
Many list online games that they associate with Nexon and their own youth, such as Combat Arms, Mabinogi, Vindictus, or MapleStory.
Who was Kim Jung-Ju? The Korean founded Nexon in his 20s and achieved tremendous success with MMORPGs. In 2003, “MapleStory” was released, the probably most famous MMORPG from Nexon. It was the first major free-to-play MMORPG.
Since 2006, Kim Jung-Ju had withdrawn from daily operations and focused mainly on charitable projects in recent years. He invested $93 million in children’s hospitals and startups.
Kim Jung-Ju was involved in a scandal in 2016. He was accused of bribing a college friend who later became a prosecutor. Although it could not be proven that Kim Jung-Ju gained any advantages from the relationship, he stepped down from further leadership positions at Nexon at that time and withdrew further.
In 2019, Kim Jung-Ju planned to sell his shares of Nexon for about 9 billion US dollars, preferably to Disney, as he believed his company would be in good hands there. However, Kim Jung-Ju could not find a suitable buyer.
However, he swore that he would not pass his shares of Nexon on to his daughters.
Kim Jung-Ju’s fortune is estimated at nearly 7 billion US dollars, making him one of the richest men in South Korea. Even though his company faced turbulence in 2021:
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If dark thoughts plague you, you can contact the crisis hotline at 0800/111 0 111 and 0800/11 0 22 – this is nationwide and free of charge.
