Nexon CEO says context will define gaming winners in AI era

Nexon Korea co-CEO Kang Dae-hyun told the 2026 Nexon Developers Conference that 'context' and 'compound interest' will determine success in the AI era, as AI lowers barriers to game development. He argued that games must compete through the depth of context, not technical quality, and that accumulated intelligence from building context over time is more valuable than AI itself.

Korea's biggest game developer conference runs through Thursday with focus on AI Artificial intelligence may be lowering barriers to game development, but Nexon Korea co-CEO Kang Dae-hyun believes the industry's most valuable asset remains difficult to automate: context. In a keynote speech at the 2026 Nexon Developers Conference on Tuesday, Kang identified "context" and "compound interest" as the two critical factors that will determine success in the AI era. "Now, games must compete through the depth of context, not based on how well they're made," he said. Kang presented two different images of MapleStory hats: One that was created by a conventional AI service and the other made with an extensive understanding of Nexon’s hit side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game. “The hat made by the conventional AI service looks fine for those who may not know MapleStory, but the other hat created with over 20 years of knowing the game is truly a MapleStory hat that can be worn by in-game avatars,” he said. Referring to context as everything surrounding a game, ranging from game developers’ accumulated data over the years and exchanges and relationships among users to shared memories on online communities, Kang called attention to what he described as “contextual capital.” According to the Nexon leader, contextual capital has to be accompanied by compound interest in the game. “Developers use the experience from the previous game to improve the completeness of the next game, while players can take their gaming experiences outside the platform by watching other creators’ in-game performances, talking about the game with others and creating their own gaming content,” said Kang. “Artificial intelligence can be bought, but accumulated intelligence can only be created with the time that one took to build context. ... The size of a starting point is not important. Compound interest can get big quickly, even with a small beginning. What’s important is whether you start building your context today.” The 2026 Nexon Developer Conference, which features 51 sessions over three days through Thursday, will cover nine main categories including AI, gaming design and operation, and data analysis. All sessions are streamed via NDC’s YouTube channel. Marking its 19th edition, the NDC has become Korea’s biggest game developers’ event. Last year, the event drew 7,600 on-site participants and 58,500 views on its live streams. hwkan@heraldcorp.com