Nexon to shut down 25-year-old Crazy Arcade on Thursday

Nexon ends Crazy Arcade after 25 years

Patrick's 'focus' strategy reshapes portfolio

'Crazy Park' IP vanishes from PC lineup

The Nexon booth at G-Star 2024, held at BEXCO in Busan last year [Nexon]

Nexon's flagship title Crazy Arcade is heading into retirement. With the shutdown, all intellectual property under the "Crazy Park" umbrella — home to characters such as Dao, Bazzi and Uni — will disappear from Nexon's PC game lineup.

The backlash from Korean players has been fierce. The game's official website message board is flooded with comments including "Don't take away my one and only favorite game," "Please reverse the server shutdown" and "I'm in shock." On SNS, posts have appeared recruiting players for one last session before the servers go dark.

Industry observers see the closure as a reflection of the "selection and concentration" strategy championed by Patrick Söderlund, who was appointed Nexon's chairman earlier this year.

Nexon will officially shut down Crazy Arcade at 9 a.m. Thursday, according to industry sources.

In a notice posted on its official website Tuesday, Nexon said the game's homepage would become inaccessible and all posts would be deleted. The company added that inquiries related to Nexon IDs and Nexon Cash would be accepted through customer service until Sept. 15.

Crazy Arcade is an action game in which players trap and eliminate opponents using water balloons. Developed by Mplay and published by Nexon, it launched in September 2001 and built a 25-year following on the strength of characters like Dao and Bazzi. It is also regarded as the origin of Nexon's broader Crazy Park IP, which later spawned titles including Crazy Racing KartRider and Crazy Shooting BubbleFighter.

Crazy Arcade has long been considered one of Nexon's most enduring franchises. At G-Star 2024, South Korea's largest gaming expo, Nexon described the title as "a flagship game that recorded a global peak of about 1 million concurrent users and a domestic peak of 400,000."

Industry insiders have raised questions about whether Chairman Patrick's influence was behind the shutdown decision. Appointed as Nexon's inaugural chairman in February, he has repeatedly emphasized a corporate philosophy of "selection and concentration."

At a capital markets briefing in March, Patrick said Nexon's current portfolio of supported titles was "too broad" and pledged to review existing projects, keeping only those that met a newly established minimum profitability threshold. The prevailing view in the industry is that Crazy Arcade failed to clear that bar.

Nexon's management said it intends to keep the Crazy Park IP alive through various means even after the game itself goes offline. CEO Kang Dae-hyun said at the Nexon Developers Conference 2026 in June that "even if the game's service ends, we will ensure the IP lives on."

However, no specific plans have been finalized internally. A Nexon spokesperson said players would be able to enjoy the Crazy Park IP in a forthcoming relaunch of KartRider, but added that "no utilization plans have been officially discussed or decided at the company level."

Meanwhile, with Crazy Arcade's closure, the Crazy Park IP will have completely vanished from Nexon's PC game offerings. Crazy Shooting BubbleFighter, another title built on the same IP, also shut down on June 24.

Crazy Racing KartRider, which ran for 19 years, ended service in 2023. Nexon subsequently announced plans to develop KartRider Classic as a spiritual successor, but no release date has been disclosed.

chami@heraldcorp.com