UPDATE as of June 24, 2025: Tencent has denied all the rumours and said that these are untrue, reports Reuters.
The original story continues below.
Tencent, the China-based tech company, is reportedly exploring a deal to buy Nexon, the popular South Korean game developer valued at around $15 billion.
According to Bloomberg, the tech giant has contacted the family of Nexon’s late founder, Kim Jung-Ju, who currently controls the company through their investment firm NXC Corp. However, it’s still unclear if the family is open to selling.
This comes as Tencent looks to strengthen its gaming division, already one of the most profitable. Nexon is known for both multi-platform experiences with franchises like MapleStory and Dungeon & Fighter, the latter being a joint project with Tencent Games for mobile.
Tencent previously showed interest in acquiring Nexon back in 2019, but the deal didn’t go through. With recent shifts in ownership after Kim’s death in 2022 and the South Korean government briefly holding a stake in NXC, any deal could be complex. The Tencent Nexon news has sparked mixed reactions across gaming communities.
While some see it as another sign of massive corporate collaboration, others are sceptical that the deal will even happen, given past failed talks and Nexon’s history with Tencent. At the time of writing, nothing official has been announced.
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