NCSOFT publishes second ESG report with a playbook concept

NCSOFT Corp., a leading South Korean game developer, has published its second annual sustainability report using a playbook map concept. 

The report, titled NCSOFT ESG Playbook 2021, introduces the gaming company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities as game tactics. The 80-page report is available on the firm’s website. 

In the report, NCSOFT defined the core values of its ESG management as "The Right Play," "Digital Responsibility" and the "Qualitative Leap of Society" and explained its key ESG achievements.

The Right Play section expounds on the company’s activities to promote diversity and inclusion, thus preventing discrimination and hate based on nationality, gender or race. It also introduces a new initiative, Shift Left, NCSOFT’s commitment to communicate with its customers more frequently and earlier in the game development process.

In the Digital Responsibility section, NCSOFT describes its efforts to build cutting-edge information security and data privacy systems that match global standards. The company has also set guidelines for creating bias-free artificial intelligence that continuously learns from human input and collaboration, and has implemented related research and development activities.

The Qualitative Leap of Society is divided into three sections: environmentally friendly management, the future generation; and community. NCSOFT has formed a dedicated environmental organization and stipulated its own policies for an eco-friendly management system. The company runs the NC Cultural Foundation, which seeks to unlock the creativity of the younger generations and pursue unbiased growth.

“We will take action to live by our core values. NCSOFT will establish a corporate culture to expand our communications starting at the early phase of game development, across all of our services and to fully reflect customer feedback,” said Yoon Song-yee, chairperson of the NCSOFT ESG Steering Committee.     

Last year, NCSOFT became the first game developer to launch an ESG management committee. It is also the only Korean listed-game developer to earn an ESG rating of A from the Korea Corporate Governance Service (KCGS) and MSCI in 2021.

In March, the gaming company acquired a “low risk” ESG rating by scoring 12.2 from ESG ratings firm Sustainanalytics. NCSOFT said this is the second-best among the 53 global game companies evaluated by Sustainanalytics.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.