[DigitalToday reporter Ho-jung Lee] Major South Korean game companies are changing the center of gravity of their ESG (environmental, social and governance) management. Their 2025 sustainability reports published this year place items tied to the core business - such as user rights, information security, AI ethics and talent acquisition - at the forefront, instead of outward-facing activities such as eco-friendly campaigns or donations.

That appears to reflect a judgment that because online and mobile games run long-term services, outages, personal data leaks or leaving misconduct unaddressed can directly lead to user departures and falling revenue.

User trust is a 'financial risk'

One methodology that appeared repeatedly in major game companies' ESG reports this year was the "double materiality assessment". Some companies also called it a "dual importance assessment."

The approach weighs not only the impact of corporate activities on the environment and society, but also the impact of external changes on a company's finances. It factors into the assessment the likelihood that neglecting a specific ESG issue could lead to actual costs or lower revenue.

Pearl Abyss is a representative case. In its 2025 double materiality assessment, it selected four material issues: information security and protection of personal information, protection of user rights, work-life balance, and human resources management. Diversity and inclusion, and ethics and compliance management, which had been material issues, were not included in the final list of material issues in this assessment.

The report also set out the financial impact in detail. If security is breached and personal information is leaked, user trust could fall and revenue could drop due to service operation sanctions. If the company violates the Personal Information Protection Act, it could also incur costs such as litigation expenses and administrative fines. It also said leaving illegal programs such as bug exploits or macros unaddressed would lead to lower user satisfaction and reduced revenue. The company said it spends about 12 percent of its total IT budget on information protection.

Neowiz, in its first sustainability report, selected user communication, human resources management, information protection and eco-friendly workplaces as four key tasks. Among them, user communication directly connects with the company's strategy of "creating IP that is loved for a long time together with fandom."

Kakao Games also set three key tasks - user rights and service quality, information security, and climate change response - and presented each task's impact on finances and the likelihood of risks occurring. Wemade also adopted "service quality management," which is directly linked to the essence of its game and blockchain business, as a new focus task.

Taken together, these cases show a clear direction toward managing ESG issues as business risks and opportunities rather than corporate social contributions. In effect, the priority has shifted from "what was done well" to "what becomes a growth opportunity, and what could lead to costs and losses."

AI shifts from an efficiency tool to a governance task

Another prominent item, alongside management of user trust, was artificial intelligence. As the use of generative AI increases in game development and operations, productivity rises but new risks have also grown, such as copyright, data security, personal information and harmful expressions.

Krafton built its ESG framework around three pillars: "sustainable infrastructure," "trustworthy publishing" and "responsible AI." In the responsible AI area, it established principles for AI use by combining international information security certifications (ISO/IEC 27001 and 27701), an internal AI safety consultative body, and a review system by the ESG committee under the board.

Netmarble improved efficiency in producing game assets with its in-house AI art generation tool, "KkK ArtGen." It has set AI ethics and security guidelines and is also preparing a system in which all employees use AI agents.

NC presented a step-by-step AI risk management system that proceeds from establishing a risk management framework to model validation and operational monitoring. Kakao Games distributed a companywide checklist through its technology ethics committee to respond to copyright and data risks.

Pearl Abyss took a different approach. It is limiting service bypassing and abnormal activities through a security monitoring system that combines external threat intelligence with AI analysis technology. It also included in its mid- to long-term plans an AI review system to automate management of personal information risks. It is also separately advancing monitoring for changes in laws and regulations by country.

While Krafton, Netmarble and NC put AI forward as a tool to improve development efficiency, Pearl Abyss placed more weight on the "surveillance and control" side, such as detecting misconduct and checking risks. AI has emerged as a new ESG item because what matters is how responsibly it is controlled, rather than the scale of its use.

Same risks, different solutions

Still, companies differed in how they addressed user trust and information security.

Kakao Games highlighted game accessibility and introduced its project to improve game access for people with disabilities, "Play Buddy Together," as a key case. Wemade adopted "service quality management" as a new focus task to reflect the characteristics of its game and blockchain business.

Krafton said it sanctioned about 7.95 million accounts last year with its in-house misconduct detection system (KSS) and emphasized "trustworthy publishing." Netmarble registered the Netmarble Game Museum as a Category 1 specialized museum and included a vision of preserving games as cultural and historical assets. Com2uS linked long-running IP performance to competitiveness in its game business, citing the 10th anniversary success of Summoners War and achieving 1 trillion won in cumulative sales for its baseball games. NC cited user communication cases for its new title "Aion 2" and made competitiveness in its core game business the key to sustainability.

Pearl Abyss presented talent and organizational culture, and user accessibility, as points of differentiation. It received certification as one of "Korea's Great Places to Work" for a second straight year by providing the same welfare benefits to contract, dispatched and special employees. It also strengthened game accessibility through features such as a color-blind mode and seating arrangements for people with disabilities.

The prominence of the environmental category appears relatively weak. That may be because the game industry is not a sector with large direct emissions like manufacturing, but it can also be interpreted as meaning its importance has not fallen. Unlike in the past, when the focus was on campaigns and donations, this year the emphasis shifted to management systems such as carbon neutrality targets, climate scenario analysis and environmental certifications.