Absorbing Casual, Shedding Webtoons... Game Companies Restructuring Subsidiaries

Neowiz, Neptune Streamline Casual Game Divisions
NHN Ends Comico Japan; Com2us Liquidates Funflow

The domestic gaming industry is accelerating large-scale restructuring, including the absorption and merger of subsidiaries as well as the liquidation and sale of underperforming affiliates. The sector is focusing on internalizing and intensively nurturing proven capabilities in casual games, while boldly winding down affiliated companies with low business potential to maximize management efficiency.

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According to the 2026 semi-annual report submitted to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system on August 20, Neowiz merged its subsidiary Hidier and excluded it from its consolidated financial statements. Hidier is the developer behind the casual game "Cats & Soup," which reached 60 million downloads globally. Neowiz acquired 100% of Hidier’s shares in 2021 for 20 billion won and completed the merger process earlier this year—integrating Hidier into its headquarters’ development division to reinforce development and business competitiveness.

Triple, which demonstrated its strength in the global casual gaming sector with titles like "Cat Snack Bar," was absorbed by Neptune this past April. Since being incorporated as a subsidiary of Krafton last year, Neptune has been playing the role of an intermediate holding company, solidifying its casual games business structure.

NC is also working to strengthen its lineup of casual games. NC has built a global foundation for its casual gaming business by successively acquiring Rifuhu (Vietnam), SpringComz, and JustPlay (Germany). In the first quarter of this year, Rifuhu and SpringComz were included in NC's consolidated financial statements, followed by JustPlay in the second quarter—enabling portfolio diversification and improving business results.

On the other hand, subsidiaries with low business potential or insufficient synergy are being swiftly reorganized. NHN excluded its second-tier subsidiary Recon from its consolidated group in the first half of the year due to the loss of control following its sale. Recon is a content company under Comico Japan, NHN's Japanese webtoon subsidiary. At the same time, NHN also decided to discontinue the service of its webtoon platform Comico in January next year. While Comico once achieved top user rates after entering the Japanese market in 2013, its ranking has gradually declined in the competitive landscape.

NHN explained that this decision—prompted by uncertain management conditions in the webtoon market and the oligopoly structure of major platforms such as Line Manga (Naver) and Piccoma (Kakao)—was made to improve management efficiency and profitability. An NHN representative stated, "We will focus our webtoon business on our role as a CP, producing and distributing high-quality webtoon content," adding, "We aim to build a solid business foundation that guarantees sustained substance."

Com2us, which began restructuring its subsidiaries last year, also completed the liquidation of its development subsidiary Funflow after continued losses, and removed it from its list of affiliates. Similarly, Devsisters completed the liquidation of its underperforming German software subsidiary and is pursuing organizational improvements such as cost reduction.

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