Digital Today reporter Lee Ho-jung - Webzen will launch its new title "Dragon Sword" on the 21st, making an early-year bet from the first month of the new year. Attention is focused on whether it can reduce reliance on the "MU" intellectual property (IP) that has supported Webzen for more than 20 years and deliver a performance rebound.

◆ A hit IP that became a "double-edged sword"... a "bet" to move beyond formulaic MMORPGs

For Webzen, 2026 means more than a simple new-game launch. Last year, the company received a painful set of results as the aging of its core IP overlapped with a lack of new titles. According to financial information firm FnGuide, Webzen's full-year 2025 revenue is forecast at 170.8 billion won and operating profit at 29.8 billion won, down 20.4 percent and 45.3 percent year on year, respectively.

The main cause of the performance decline is clear. Staying power in revenue from the "MU" IP, which has served as Webzen's cash cow, has weakened. As of the first half of 2025, MU-related revenue fell 27 percent from a year earlier. The IP had driven the company's best-ever results in 2020 on the back of successful new titles such as "MU Archangel". But deepening aging and heightened reliance have instead increased earnings volatility, making it a "double-edged sword". Even "MU: Pocket Knights" and "R2 Origin", ambitiously introduced in the second half of last year, failed to meet market expectations, and the company failed to turn sentiment around.

In this crisis, Dragon Sword has emerged at the forefront of efforts to turn the mood around. Webzen will officially launch the open-world action RPG "Dragon Sword", developed by Hound 13, on the 21st. The game is central to Webzen's strategy to move away from MU. Unlike Webzen's existing lineup, which has been skewed toward massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Dragon Sword seeks differentiation by combining refined combo action with open-world exploration.

Dragon Sword had been scheduled for release last year, but Webzen set it for January after pushing the launch into the next year, citing completeness. After a closed beta test in May, it worked to improve gameplay, including enhancing optimisation and story direction and applying full voice acting by well-known South Korean voice actors.

◆ Added ownership to a well-stocked war chest... the "big picture" of a returning founder

Webzen's efforts to change do not stop at a single new title. Backed by ample liquidity, Webzen is moving to improve its fundamentals by aggressively increasing investments in promising developers.

As of the end of the third quarter last year, Webzen's cash and cash equivalents plus financial assets total about 487.7 billion won. Given that Webzen's market capitalisation stood at about 430.0 billion won as of the 8th, the company is holding more cash than its value. Using those funds, Webzen made equity investments in small and mid-sized developers to secure publishing rights, including 30.0 billion won in Hound 13 and 12.7 billion won in Ritrail.

A change in the management structure is also drawing attention. Founder Kim Byung-kwan was appointed as an internal director last month, returning to the front line of management after nine years. He led the heyday of "MU Online" at the time of Webzen's merger in 2010, and has taken the field again as a relief pitcher designing the post-MU era 16 years later. The return of Kim, a controlling shareholder and M&A expert, is read as a signal that the company will speed up efforts to discover new IP and make large-scale investment decisions.

An industry official said, "For Webzen, this Dragon Sword is not just a single new title, but a test bed where it must prove whether it can survive and grow even without the MU IP." The official added, "This year's point to watch will be whether the founder's return and massive cash-like assets lead to securing real development capabilities and producing hit titles."