Kim Jung-ju, the founder of Korean gaming giant Nexon, has died at the age of 54, the company said Tuesday.
NXC, Nexon's holding company, said in a statement that Kim died in the U.S. late last month. It said Kim had been undergoing treatment for depression, "and we are sad that it seemed to have worsened recently."
"Please excuse us for not being able to explain in detail," it added. "All of his family are in great grief."
Kim was born in Seoul in 1968 and graduated from Seoul National University in computer engineering. He obtained a master's degree in computer science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology but gave up pursuing a PhD and founded Nexon with a fellow student in 1994 with a capital of just W60 million (US$1=W1,204).
Nexon took off with the world's first graphic online game "Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds" in 1996 and developed many hits including "MapleStory" and "KartRider."
The company is now one of the top 3 game developers in Korea with a market capitalization of W24 trillion and W3 trillion in annual sales.
According to Bloomberg, Kim was worth US$7.46 billion, making him the world's 338th wealthiest person and the third richest in Korea. The only investment he received was from his attorney father until Nexon became the first Korean company to be listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2011.
But Kim removed himself from day-to-day management of Nexon after failing to sell the company for around W10 trillion in early 2019 and stepped down as CEO of the holding firm in June last year, ceding control to a professional manager. At that time, Kim said, "I will look for ways to contribute to Nexon and our society more freely."
He is survived by his wife and two daughters.
