Nexon Co., Ltd., a Tokyo-based global producer, developer and operator of multiplayer online video games, recently named entertainment industry veteran Nick van Dyk as executive VP and chief strategy officer.
Van Dyk comes to Nexon from Activision Blizzard Studios, where he was president of the film and television division. Prior to that, he spent 10 years with the Walt Disney Company as senior VP of corporate strategy and business development, helping to acquire Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm. In van Dyk's new position, he will oversee global strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, corporate development, franchise management and partnerships, Nexon said in a press release.
"Nexon is a unique global entertainment company with a rare and proven expertise in sustaining blockbuster properties at massive scale that routinely outperform others in the industry,” van Dyk said in the release. “We’re building a Los Angeles-based team to turbocharge Nexon’s tremendous growth opportunities in globally resonant IP and important platforms through which our audiences can engage with that IP. I'm thrilled to help Nexon achieve its goal of becoming one of the most successful media companies of the 21st century."
Nexon gave Van Dyk a third title – president of Los Angeles-based Nexon Film and Television, the company said. The new division will build on the value of the company's existing intellectual property, games such as Dungeon Fighter, The Kingdom of the Winds, MapleStory and KartRider, as well as new games to be developed by Nexon's Embark Studios in Stockholm, the company said.
"At Walt Disney, Nick was a leader in building what is arguably the most successful IP strategy in entertainment history," Nexon CEO and President Owen Mahoney said in the release. "He created a film and television business for Activision and understands how cross-platform strategies can drive subscribers and engagement for the original property."
Founded in 1994, Nexon Co. Ltd. has more than 50 live games on multiple platforms available in over 190 countries, the company said.
Van Dyk and Mahoney have a long-range strategic plan for the new division, according to a recent interview the pair gave to Deadline.com. That strategy is to produce live-action and animated projects based on its games while being careful to stay true to the original properties.
“As an industry we are continuing to learn the power of this IP,” van Dyk told Deadline. "You have to strike a balance between broadening out and serving the core audience.”