[Interview] Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, "I Will Build the Biggest Metaverse Company"

Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] #Jang Hyun-guk, CEO of Wemade, is taking a walk in the virtual reality Swiss Alps. Like the German philosopher Nietzsche, he meditates while absorbing the spirit of the Alps, and even there, he manages a game company and conducts economic activities. This is the vision of the 'Metaverse' that CEO Jang dreams of. The mid-sized game company Wemade surprised the gaming industry by recording a 'shock performance' with a 755% increase in operating profit in the first quarter compared to the previous year. Wemade, which posted its best quarterly performance since its founding, has identified the 'Metaverse' business as its future growth engine.

The Future of Gaming is the 'Metaverse'

In an interview with Asia Economy on the 26th, CEO Jang said, "Among existing services, games are the closest to the metaverse," adding, "The future of the gaming industry will flow toward the metaverse." The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual world. It is a compound word of 'meta,' meaning transcendence or abstraction, and 'universe,' meaning the real world. CEO Jang summarized the metaverse into two aspects: a new identity and economic activities. He explained, "The core of the metaverse is having a new identity different from the current self and engaging in activities that can generate income."

CEO Jang predicted that games will evolve into the metaverse. However, an essential element for this is 'economic activity.' For example, owning real estate or companies within the metaverse, buying and selling them, and linking these transactions back to the real economy. Wemade entered the virtual currency business in 2018 through its subsidiary 'Wemade Tree' to facilitate such economic activities within the metaverse. CEO Jang stated, "The metaverse is essentially a game with an economic foundation, and that foundation is virtual currency," adding, "We have been preparing the blockchain business for three years and plan to actively expand it in the future."

Wemade has announced investment plans for 100 companies related to virtual currency this year. Recently, it also invested in a company developing a virtual currency financial service called 'DeFi.' Wemade is also interested in acquiring virtual currency exchanges. There were recent rumors about acquiring 'Bithumb.' CEO Jang said, "When the metaverse and virtual currency become a new world, exchanges will become important hubs, and their role will be significant."

Beyond the Largest Game IP to a 'Metaverse' Company

Wemade is preparing to launch its new title Mir4 overseas. Mir4 is scheduled to be released in China next year. The 'Mir' intellectual property (IP) holds a status in China comparable to NCSoft's 'Lineage' IP in Korea. Considering the Chinese games that have illegally used the Mir IP, annual sales are estimated to reach 9 trillion won. With the lawsuit against counterfeiters nearing its final stage, Wemade has set a target of 200 billion won in sales from China this year.

Wemade plans to apply a virtual currency system to Mir4 as well. However, since there are still legal restrictions in Korea and China, it will be integrated into global services such as the United States, where the release is scheduled around August to September. CEO Jang said, "Among commercially successful games, this will be the first case where blockchain technology and virtual currency are applied."

Within the Mir4 game, a 'token' will be created among the in-game currencies, and NFT (non-fungible token) technology will be introduced to enable the trading of game characters themselves. Currently, Wemade is providing blockchain-based games such as 'Bird Tornado for WEMIX' and 'Jaeshin Jeon-gi for WEMIX' overseas. Additionally, Wemade plans to release up to 10 blockchain games this year. CEO Jang expressed his ambition, saying, "Until last year, the goal was to become the world's largest game IP company through the Mir IP, but now the goal is for Wemade to become the largest metaverse company in the world."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.