Line Games is reshaping its co-CEO structure and speeding up an expansion of its PC and mobile lineup. After confirming the results of management efficiency measures by shrinking its deficit for a second straight year, it appears to be placing more weight this year on improving results through an expanded new lineup rather than cost controls.

According to last year's consolidated audit report released on April 21, Line Games posted 33.5 billion won in 2025 revenue and an operating loss of 14.9 billion won. Revenue fell 22 percent from a year earlier, but the operating loss narrowed 7.5 percent, extending a two-year trend of shrinking deficits.

The company explained that revenue fell due to a natural decline in existing live titles and a gap in new releases, while it kept an intense management efficiency drive to reduce losses.

Bae returns as Line Games seeks pivot to growth after Park era

Line Games on April 17 appointed former chief strategy officer Bae Young-jin (배영진) as new co-CEO through a board meeting. Bae fills the position vacated by former CEO Park Sung-min (박성민), who stepped down after completing a three-year term, while incumbent CEO Cho Dong-hyun (조동현) remains, launching a Cho-Bae co-CEO structure.

During Park's tenure as co-CEO, Line Games focused on easing uncertainty through sweeping restructuring and responses to lawsuits with financial investors. The two-year run of a narrowing deficit is seen as the result of such cost controls. The industry views the appointments as a move to shift the management stance from cost management to executing growth. The parent company, Line Yahoo, is also interpreted in the same context for supporting Line Games with 10 billion won in cash through a rights offering.

Bae is a founding member of Line Games who served as chief financial officer during its predecessor NextFloor and later as chief strategy officer after Line Games was launched. He is also an investment specialist who graduated from Seoul National University's business school and worked at PIA PE and Nexon's investment unit. After leaving the company in March 2023, he founded and ran Tail Ventures, a medical and healthcare-focused venture capital firm, and returned after 3 years and 1 month.

Cho, a former Nexon Korea employee, founded game developer SuperAwesome in 2014. He joined Line Games as chief operating officer in 2023 and led the launch of "Changsegi-jeon Mobile" and its early market establishment. The division of roles is read as Cho handling game business execution, while Bae oversees strategy, finance and investment decisions.

Line Games pursues three tracks: more PC titles, multiple mobile releases and global launches

With the launch of the new co-CEO structure, Line Games is moving to expand its lineup across both PC and mobile platforms.

In PC games, it plans to unveil at least three new titles within the year. "Come to My Party", first revealed on April 17, is a black comedy visual novel set in a South Korean elementary school in 1999, featuring a multi-ending structure in which character relationships and the ending change depending on user choices. The lineup also includes the global anticipated title "Ember and Blade" and the casual title "Hamster Talk", for which a demo version has been released.

On April 20, it signed a publishing contract with South Korean indie developer Crescent for the new PC title "CODE EXIT". It is an SF horror co-op game set in a city occupied by a rogue artificial intelligence, and targets Steam Early Access in the first quarter of next year.

In mobile games, its multiple-title strategy has begun to show visible results. Idle RPG "Animal Busters", released simultaneously in South Korea and overseas on April 7, ranked No. 2 on Google Play's popularity chart and No. 9 on Apple's App Store within three days of launch.

It is also pursuing global expansion of existing titles. Open-world MMORPG "Daehanghae Sidae Origin" is set for an official launch in China on April 28. More than 5 million people took part in local pre-registrations, and publishing will be handled by Seongchwi Games. A global launch of "Changsegi-jeon Mobile" is also included in this year's schedule.

The strategic roles of PC and mobile stand out as being differentiated. Mobile is focused on quickly gauging market reaction and diversifying revenue sources, while PC targets a mid- to long-term portfolio overhaul through genre diversification and global scalability. But whether the multiple-title strategy leads to actual results improvement remains a variable, as it requires the completion level of individual titles and the standard of localisation to be supported.

Cho and Bae said, "Amid an increasingly fierce market environment, we will strengthen the company's fundamentals and secure competitiveness that can respond pre-emptively to change."