NC Kim Taek-jin's Salary Last Year 3.6 Billion Won... Halved Due to Performance Decline

Sluggish Performance of New Releases and Declining Sales of Existing Titles
Large-Scale Spin-Offs and Voluntary Retirements Last Year
CEO Compensation Fell to Less Than Half Compared to 2023

Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft, saw his total compensation last year plummet to half of the previous year. This is due to NCSoft's deteriorating performance. As NCSoft experienced a large-scale spin-off and voluntary retirement last year due to poor performance of new releases and declining sales of existing titles, the CEO's compensation also appears to have been cut by more than half.

According to the NCSoft business report released on the 18th, Kim's total compensation was 3.585 billion KRW, consisting of a salary of 2.559 billion KRW and a bonus of 1 billion KRW. The bonus Kim received was a special long-term contribution incentive granted when NCSoft recorded its highest annual sales in 2022 thanks to the success of 'Lineage W.'

Regarding Kim's short-term performance incentives, NCSoft stated that "payment was not made as financial targets such as sales and operating profit were not met." In 2023, Kim received a total compensation of 7.246 billion KRW, which included a salary of 2.559 billion KRW and a bonus of 4.665 billion KRW. At that time, he ranked first in annual salary among executives in the gaming industry.

Co-CEO Park Byung-moo received 2.04 billion KRW in salary and welfare benefits, while Executive Vice President Lee Sung-gu, who oversees the 'Lineage' intellectual property (IP), received 2.97 billion KRW. Former Senior Vice President Kim Taek-heon and former Executive Director Park Myung-jin, who left NCSoft in the first half of the year, received 6.767 billion KRW and 1.54 billion KRW respectively, including severance pay.

The total number of non-registered executives at NCSoft decreased by 13 from 78 in 2023 to 65. The average salary per person also dropped by 21.5%, from 646 million KRW to 507 million KRW. The total number of employees likewise declined by 22.5%, from 4,816 to 3,732, influenced by the spin-off and voluntary retirement.