Dave the Diver an unlikely hero in game and for Nexon

Nexon is betting that smaller teams with smaller budgets will produce better games. One example of this strategy in action is Dave the Diver, a PC and console roleplaying game (RPG) that involves deep-sea diving, fishing and sushi ...

An image of Dave the Diver, a PC and console roleplaying game (RPG) from Nexon's Mint Rocket [NEXON]

Nexon is betting that smaller teams with smaller budgets will produce better games.

One example of this strategy in action is Dave the Diver, a PC and console roleplaying game (RPG) that involves deep-sea diving, fishing and sushi-serving.

The game has received 10 out of 10 ratings from 4,000 users on Steam, where it was released for early access on Oct. 27. Dave the Diver became the No. 1 game on Steam in just two weeks with “overwhelmingly positive” reviews from 4,338 users as of Friday.

The 2-D oceanic RPG has simple gameplay with cute, and sometimes overwhelming, marine creatures. Players control Dave to go diving into the mysterious Blue Hole to catch fish during the day and come back to the surface to serve at a sushi place with his prizes at night.

In between his adventures, players are given mini-missions to fulfill and new stories to unravel. The money Dave earns at night can be used to upgrade his equipment during the day, bringing him rarer and finer catches.

The game's console version was presented for the first time during the G-Star 2022 game festival held earlier this month at Bexco, Busan.

Nexon's booth at the G-Star 2022 game festival held from Nov. 17 to 20 at Bexco, Busan [SONG BONG-GEUN]

A console version of Dave the Diver exhibited on Nintendo Switch at the G-Star 2022 game festival [YOON SO-YEON]

Contrary to the dark-fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG) abundant in the market, Tokyo-listed Nexon is known for some of the cutest games in the domestic market, such as MapleStory, KartRider and Mabinogi.

What sets Dave the Diver apart from the past success from Nexon is that the game was developed by a team about one-third the size of a team that would normally be assembled to develop a game.

Dave the Diver is the first project from Mint Rocket, a gaming brand introduced by Nexon last May.

Mint Rocket is not a separate company but a small-sized unit within Nexon with around 30 developers. An average team usually has around 100 and up to 200 or 300 developers for a major title and spends billions of won for the project, such as the Durango mobile game that reportedly took 20 billion won ($15 million) to make.

The company says it cost far less to make Dave the Diver, although no numbers were disclosed.

Lee Jung-hun, CEO of Nexon Korea, gives a preview of nine new games Nexon will present at G-Star 2022 ahead of the game festival next week on Nov. 8 at the company's office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [NEXON]

The success of Dave the Diver and Mint Rocket can be traced back to the failure of Durango. The mobile MMORPG game was shut in 2019, less than two years after its release due to negative feedback from users.

“The year 2019 was pivotal for Nexon,” CEO Lee Jung-hun said in a press conference held on Nov. 8 prior to the G-Star 2022 game festival. “We’ve been trying to make changes ever since. And going forward, we will gradually try to show how different we’ve become.”

Mint Rocket acts as a swift and flexible indie developer team, but with better funding.

“The reason Mint Rocket is operated in a small size is because we want to guarantee maximum creativity,” said Kim Dae-won, vice president of Nexon Korea, to the local press during the G-Star 2022 game festival held earlier this month in Busan. “But we ensure the members of Mint Rocket more time to compensate for the small number of developers.”

The games made by Mint Rocket will not be restricted to certain genres or styles, but rather span across diverse fields to appeal to a wider range of gamers in the global market.

Images of Dave the Diver [NEXON]

Images of Dave the Diver [NEXON]

The company’s revenue has been on the increase, but so has the company’s dependence on domestic users. In the third quarter of 2022, 65 percent of the company’s 97.5 billion yen ($702 million) revenue, or 62.8 billion yen, was generated from Korean users. That’s 12 percentage points more than the same period last year, when 53 percent of revenue came from Korean users.

“Nexon’s move to diversify its platforms and target markets is meaningful, especially at a time when the Chinese gaming market remains closed to foreign games and the domestic mobile MMORPG market is stagnant,” said Rhee So-joong, an analyst at SK Securities. “But we will have to wait for revenue and other market results to see how effective it has been.”

Mint Rocket is currently working on two new games: TB, a 2-D team battle game TB, and P8, with player-versus-player and player-versus-environment format. TB is set for release next year, but P8 is in the beginning stage of development so no date has been set yet.

Durango is also set to make a comeback. It will be brought back under the name Project DX, a new MMORPG taking the dinosaur-era survival theme from the original. A date has not been set for release, nor any further details on what kind of game it will be.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]