Nexxus Jang Hyun-guk receives 10.7 billion won salary... No. 1 in the gaming industry

No. 1 Employee, Krafton Kim Chang-han

No. 1 Average Salary, Shift Up

Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Nexxus (formerly Action Square), was named the executive in the gaming industry who received the highest compensation, including salary and bonuses, last year.

According to major game companies' business reports on the 24th, CEO Jang received a total of 10.718 billion won in compensation from Wemade, where he served as vice chairman until last year, including a salary of 1 billion won and stock option exercise profits of 9.716 billion won.

CEO Jang had been the CEO of Wemade since 2014, but stepped down from the CEO position when Park Kwan-ho, chairman of the board, was appointed as CEO in March last year, and left the company at the end of the same year to join Nexxus earlier this year. It is interpreted that he exercised his stock options and secured profits as he left the company.

Based on current employees, Krafton CEO Kim Chang-han ranked first. He received a total of 5.931 billion won in compensation, including a salary of 546 million won and bonuses of 5.367 billion won.

Krafton achieved its highest performance ever last year, recording annual sales of 2.7098 trillion won and operating profit of 1.1825 trillion won. This was due to the steady increase in sales of its flagship 'Battlegrounds (PUBG)' series on both PC and mobile. As a result, CEO Kim's salary also increased by 67.5% from 3.541 billion won in 2023.

On the other hand, NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin received a total of 3.585 billion won in compensation, including a salary of 2.559 billion won and bonuses of 1 billion won, due to the impact of deteriorating performance. CEO Kim received a total of 7.246 billion won in compensation two years ago, including a salary of 2.559 billion won and bonuses of 4.665 billion won, ranking first among gaming industry executives, but it has now decreased by half.

This year, the gaming industry also stood out for its exceptional compensation for key developers of popular games, surpassing even CEOs. Nexon Games paid a total of 1.116 billion won in compensation to Kim Yong-ha, the general PD who created the subculture (Japanese animation style) game 'Blue Archive', including a salary of 230 million won and bonuses of 880 million won. CEO Park Yong-hyun received about 900 million won during the same period.

At Neowiz, Director Choi Ji-won, who created the console action game 'P's Lies', was also awarded 1.53 billion won, more than co-CEOs Kim Seung-chul and Bae Tae-geun, and Park Sung-joon, the head of the studio, received 980 million won.

Krafton also awarded 2.552 billion won to Director Jang Tae-seok, who led the success of the PUBG series, a key cash cow, and about 1.7 billion won each to Director Kim Tae-hyun and PD Kim Sang-kyun.

Shift Up, the developer of the mobile game 'Goddess of Victory: Nikke' and the console game 'Stellar Blade', ranked first in average employee salary, including non-registered executives. As of the end of last year, Shift Up had a total of 308 employees, with an average salary of 131.65 million won per person, the highest among major game companies.

Krafton and NCSoft also exceeded 100 million won in average employee salary, with 109 million won and 108 million won, respectively, along with Shift Up.

Park Soo-bin, Hankyung.com reporter waterbean@hankyung.com