Netmarble to officially launch Seven Knights Revolution on July 28 

Netmarble Corp. is poised to officially launch its latest game Seven Knights Revolution on July 28 in South Korea. 

The South Korean mobile game developer held a showcase for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) at its headquarters in Seoul on Thursday.

Seven Knights Revolution, the latest game from the popular Seven Nights series, will be published on mobile and computer platforms. The series was first unveiled in 2014. 

Netmarble Nexus Inc., a Netmarble subsidiary, had some 100 people developing the product over four years. 

Whereas the series’ other games centered around single play, the soon-to-be-released game will stress real-time competition and cooperation between players. 

“I would like to mark 2022 as the first year in which we expand our platform and our own intellectual property,” Netmarble co-CEO Kwon Young-sik said. “Seven Knights Revolution is at the center of this shift.” 

In the latest saga, players can turn themselves into Seven Knights heroes using avatars and go on an adventure in an open-world MMORPG. 

Head of development at Netmarble Nexus Ahn Joon-suk said, “While existing players of Seven Knights are able to turn themselves into the heroes they like, new players will benefit from the highly immersive storytelling and the option to transform themselves into limitless heroes.”

“In addition to the Seven Knights Revolution, we are preparing another game using the Seven Knight intellectual property, a game based on a Japanese anime, as well as a completely new game,” Netmarble Nexus CEO Kim Jung-min announced.

The biggest game developer in South Korea suffered a loss in the first quarter of this year – for the first time in a decade. Hit by a rise in personnel expenditures and pandemic-driven telecommuting, it suffered 11.9 billion won ($9 million) in operating losses. 

Industry insiders expect the situation will return to profit as early as the third quarter of this year. 

The original Seven Knights game has been downloaded 60 million times globally. 

Unlike Netmarble’s other hit games such as Lineage 2: Revolution and Blade & Soul: Revolution, the Seven Knights series uses Netmarble’s own intellectual property. That means the company does not have to worry about paying royalties, which take a hit on its profitability. 

“As we plan to release a number of new mobile and computer games, as well as a new gaming console, a rebound in operating profit will be possible,” a Netmarble employee told The Korea Economic Daily. 

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.