Employee strikes by "Dungeon and the Warriors" and "First Berserkers: Kazan" developer Neople (parent company Nexon) are intensifying as union accused employees of cutting bonuses.
According to Automaton, South Korean media ThisIsGame pointed out that Neople's strike began on July 31, and initially took three days a week.According to financial media Chosun Biz, the strike has now been upgraded to a five-day strike every week, becoming the "first" full-week strike in the South Korean game industry.
Neople is the developer of "First Berserker: Kazan", but the dispute mainly revolves around another internal development team.Neople union said that some executives' bonuses increased by more than 10 times, while the DNF mobile game team's bonuses shrank by 30%.
Previously, thanks to the influx of Chinese players, "Dungeons and Warriors" set a revenue record, but the ambiguity of the bonus distribution mechanism seems to intensify the contradiction.
"Dungeons and Warriors" has not outstanding influence on Western markets or platforms such as Steam - "Dungeons and Warriors Online" has 5,557 user reviews on Steam, with a 61% praise rate - but the series is huge in the Asian market and is one of the world's highest-paid game IPs.
Obviously, Neople has promised to pay additional performance bonuses to the DNF mobile game team, which may be as high as several times the annual salary of an average developer.Union representatives reportedly have asked for greater transparency and consistency in bonuses and called for a more comprehensive profit sharing program that would distribute a percentage of last year’s record profits to all employees.
The strike has hindered the development of DNF mobile games, which seems to have affected the game's original anniversary celebration.It is reported that Neople has initiated negotiations to resolve the strike.
Although First Berserker: Kazan received solid praise, it failed to achieve its sales target.Nexon still calls it a success, though, as it attracts new audiences for Dungeons and Warriors’ shared worldview – publishers are looking to expand the series’ reach beyond Asia.
