Kim Jong-joo, founder of NEXON, the developer of “Maple Valley” and “Running Kart”, dies at 54

Kim Jong-joo, founder of South Korean game maker NEXON, passed away in the United States at the end of February at the age of 54.

NEXON’s parent company, NXC Corporation, confirmed the matter yesterday (1).according toSouth Korea’s Chosun Ilbo quoted NXC as saying, Since the family is busy with the funeral, I cannot explain the situation in detail. I hope everyone understands. Kim Jong-joo has been receiving treatment for depression for a long time, and his symptoms seem to be worsening recently. It is a pity that this happened now.

• Kim Jung-joo, founder of NEXON (Photo credit:tree wiki）

Born in 1968, Kim Jong-joo graduated from the Department of Information at Seoul National University. When he was admitted to the doctoral program of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, he decided to suspend his studies and joined his university classmate Song Jae-kyung (“Heaven“Father of “, founder of XLGAMES) founded NEXON in 1994 with 60 million won in a small office in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, and NEXON later succeeded in the online game market, creating products including “Maple Valley》、《go kart》、《DNF” and other works that players are familiar with, in Korea, together with NCSOFT and NETMARBLE, they are known as the top three 3Ns in the game industry.

Originally, Jin Zhengzhou wanted to sell NEXON at a high price in January 2019, but later withdrew the transaction. He gradually faded out of NEXON operation. At the end of June last year, he decided to convert the company into a professional management system and actually quit the operation. Looking for ways to help NEXON and society from a free perspective, he began to invest in non-game fields in many ways.