South Korean media report that several trade unions of gaming companies are moving to open confrontation with management. Things are heating up at NCSOFT, NEXON and Netmarble at the moment. In each case, the situations are different from each other, but in the end they can lead to a variety of events, including strikes.
NCSOFT
On June 5, 2024, the NCSOFT employee union published a letter to management demanding that they abandon plans to reduce staff and spin off some internal departments into subsidiaries. In May 2024, management announced that it planned to reduce the number of employees from 5,023 to “more than four thousand.” First of all, this should have affected internal departments not involved in game development, employees over 45 years of age, and employees with low labor efficiency. However, over time, reports began to appear that the cuts would also affect game developers directly. The first hundred recommendations to leave the company became known on May 30.
According to a union representative, the company’s management is simply shifting responsibility for the failures of recent years to ordinary employees, while continuing to receive some of the highest salaries in the South Korean gaming industry. And the lack of new games is associated precisely with the lack of competent managers.
Separately, questions arise about the fate of the kindergarten, which for many years existed within the framework of NCSOFT and allowed hundreds of people not to suffer with their child’s device. Management plans to spin it off into an independent company, which could have a negative impact on operations or even lead to closure.
If the situation worsens, the union, which numbers more than 1,700 specialists, may announce a strike.
NEXON
The employee union at Neople, Nexon’s in-house studio, is very unhappy with working conditions and wage increases. The fact is that Neople is a key studio, which employs no more than 20% of Nexon employees, but s for up to 70% of all company sales thanks to the Dungeon & Fighter franchise games. Several new games are currently being developed, including Project OverkillThe First Berserker: Khazan and the 3D version of Dungeon Fighter Online.
In addition, according to the union, Neople employees overwork more than other studios to create new games and create content for already released projects. And all this has no effect on wage growth. Nexon head office does not consider it necessary to raise salaries higher than the 6.3% that other internal studios have agreed to.
On June 5 it became known that the negotiations had failed and the next step could be a strike.
Netmarble
Netmarble is in the process of a partial restructuring. Usually this consisted of the fact that not the most successful teams united into one and created projects of the required quality. For example, this is how Netmarble Neo was created, which created Solo Leveling: ARISE and Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds.
But after the closure of the casual game on May 29 Charlotte’s Table it is planned to lay off all specialists previously involved in its development, and close the NTRI studio. The union representative said that the company management should consider the possibility of employing employees, and the position “no vacancies” is just a formal excuse. At the moment, it is unclear how this situation will ultimately end.
