Nexon CEO’s progress report on westward migration — and the dirty secret on game quality

Owen Mahoney has a unique view on global gaming. He’s a former Electronic Arts executive who landed a job first as chief financial officer of Asian gaming giant Nexon. Last year, he became its chief executive, which has its headquarters in Tokyo and big operations in South Korea. Thanks to its success with games such as Maple Story and Dungeon Fighter Online, the company has more than 4,656 employees (as of December) around the world.

But Nexon makes most of its money in markets such as China, South Korea, and Japan. It has grown big thanks to PC online games in those countries. Its revenues for the first quarter ended March 31 were $418 million, up 9 percent, with profits at $151 million. But the company is generating just a small amount of money from Western games and the mobile sector.