Nexon has closed its gaming studio in Orange County, California, the company confirmed after conversations on social media.
The closure of Nexon OC shows that strong sales from increased participation in games during the pandemic are not helping all companies. There are still winners and losers in this business. In fact, the Game Developers Conference survey released today shows that parts of the gaming industry are suffering despite the overall positive trend.
GamesBeat asked the Tokyo-based company, maker of games like Dungeon Fighter and MapleStory, for comment, and Nexon confirmed it closed the study.
“We deeply appreciate the commitment and production of the OC team, however the projects under development there no longer fit our focus on core creative competencies,” a Nexon spokesperson said in a statement. “All permanent employees affected by this decision will receive dismissal and relocation assistance.”
In 2017 and 2018, numerous people said that Nexon OC was hiring people. Its leaders included seasoned game creators like Stephan Frost, Ryan Metcalf, and Jon Jelinek.
Nexon’s CEO is Owen Mahoney, who has given frequent talks at our GamesBeat conferences. In April, he talked about how the gaming world had changed due to the pandemic. Nexon has more than 5,000 employees. In mid-2019, Nexon consolidated a pair of Southern California offices into one location. The Nexon OC study was part of the Asian company’s attempt to expand to the West.
Other Orange County studios, like InXile Entertainment, said they were hiring. Nexon has several studio operations in the West, including Big Huge Games, Pixelberry and Embark studios in Sweden.
The projects in the OC studio were never announced. The company said its current roadmap has not changed at all.
We are sorry to hear about the closure of Nexon OC today. For those of you affected, we are hiring, and even if you don’t see something posted, we want to hear from you: https://t.co/ovFm9hVXtZ #gamedevjobs #Nexon pic.twitter.com/IXwWRANoqW
– inXile entertainment (@inXile_ent) July 16, 2020
