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COLOPL NI MAKES STRATEGIC PLAY AS VR GAMING LEADER UNDER NEWLY APPOINTED CEO, JIKHAN JUNG

COLOPL NI MAKES STRATEGIC PLAY AS VR GAMING LEADER UNDER NEWLY APPOINTED CEO, JIKHAN JUNG

US Subsidiary of Japanese Gaming Giant to Aggressively Develop, Publish and Sign New VR Titles Worldwide

SAN MATEO, CAMarch 10, 2016 – COLOPL NI, the US subsidiary of Japanese mobile leader COLOPL, Inc., today revealed its strategic move into Virtual Reality (VR) gaming as the company prepares to take a leadership position in the projected $5 billion VR gaming market*. To further this business expansion, the company has promoted Jikhan Jung to CEO of COLOPL NI. Mr. Jung, who was previously COO, has been a successful business leader for over 15 years in the global gaming market as CEO and Co-Founder of Gala-Net and Executive Producer at Kabam.

COLOPL NI was established in April 2015, and initially launched the worldwide hit RPG, Rune Story, for Western mobile market along with Downtown Showdown early this year. As part of its strategy for explosive growth and leadership positioning, the company will recruit top talent for its VR gaming-focused development, evaluate and sign new external projects and studios, all while supplementing its existing mobile gaming prowess.  A key advantage is the company’s location in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of VR talent. COLOPL NI’s goal is to release multiple high quality VR gaming titles annually starting this year.

COLOPL NI will lead the Western efforts to create and publish new VR games that will launch globally under the COLOPL brand alongside original VR titles created by COLOPL, Inc. in Japan. COLOPL Inc., COLOPL NI’s parent company, is a leading Japanese mobile gaming company with a market cap of approximately $2 billion and annual revenue of $700 million.

COLOPL, Inc. has focused attention on the potential of VR and pursued research and development in this field. Currently COLOPL, Inc. is focusing resources on VR games development and has assigned several dozen developers to VR games projects.  COLOPL, Inc. established 360Channel, Inc. in November 2015 that specializes in 360-degree video, and recently established a $50 million VR fund, one of the world’s largest investment funds specifically targeting virtual reality companies, managed by COLOPL NEXT, Inc., the company’s investment arm.

“COLOPL Group believes that Virtual Reality will be a totally new platform that changes our daily life, as The Internet changed our life 20 years ago. We will strive to develop VR games which provide the best VR experience so players don’t want to come back to the real lives,” said Jikhan Jung, CEO of COLOPL NI. “We plan to develop outstanding VR games and I am excited to ramp up our COLOPL NI team to succeed in the new VR reality.”

Jikhan Jung is a leading online gaming executive with experience creating and leading companies in new markets. In 2005, he co-founded Gala-Net, Inc., which established gPotato.com, one of the first free-to-play online gaming portals. While serving as its President and CEO, he oversaw online games that attracted 22 million users worldwide until he successfully sold the business to Webzen in 2013. Prior to joining COLOPL, he served as Executive Producer at Kabam where he led the 3rd party publishing team and support for all aspects of game service and development from East to the West.

COLOPL NI will be attending and holding meetings at the upcoming Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco from March 14-18. Interested developers and media are welcomed to schedule a private meeting with COLOPL talent by contacting [email protected].

About COLOPL NI, Inc.

COLOPL NI, Inc. is a developer and publisher of VR and mobile games that cater to the Global market, an United States subsidiary of Tokyo-based mobile gaming leader, COLOPL, Inc.

For more information on COLOPL NI, please visit www.coloplni.com.

About COLOPL, Inc.

COLOPL, Inc. was established in October 2008.  COLOPL’s mission is “Entertainment in Real Life” — making everyday life more enjoyable and wonderful for people everywhere. Based on this mission, we aim to make people’s everyday lives richer through entertainment. Our services, which began with Web game applications for feature phones, currently focus on native game applications for smartphones. We are also keeping a close watch on the evolution of devices, and are beginning to offer applications for VR (Virtual Reality) devices.

For more information about COLOPL, please visit: http://colopl.co.jp/en/