Korean giant NC has spent $300m on four studios and isn’t stopping there
Korean gaming giant NC (formerly NCsoft) is rapidly expanding its mobile game portfolio through aggressive acquisitions. Over the past year, the company invested more than $300 million to acquire four mobile game studios—Vietnam’s Lihuhu, South Korea’s Springcomes, Slovenia’s Moving Eye, and Germany’s JustPlay, a rewarded gaming platform founded by several former AppLovin executives.
Together, these acquisitions give NC control of approximately 200 live mobile games operating across various genres and business models. Leading the expansion is Anel Ceman, NC’s head of social mobile, who previously held senior roles at Outfit7, Wildlife, and Tripledot.
The company shows no signs of slowing its acquisition strategy. Ceman indicated that NC is actively pursuing additional purchases, specifically targeting established mobile studios generating between $50 million and $100 million annually across all game genres and monetization models.
A key component of NC’s consolidation effort involves building centralized internal infrastructure. The company is developing a unified toolset to manage creative development and operations across its entire portfolio, emphasizing operational efficiency and knowledge sharing between acquired studios.