Wemade: Founder Sells Controlling Stake to China-Linked NeoPulse for ~$597m

WRITTEN BY Diana Barsukova | 06 Jul 2026

M&A

South Korean MMORPG developer Wemade (KOSDAQ: 112040) founder and chairman, Park Kwan-Ho, has agreed to sell his entire personal stake, representing 39.33% of the company, to NeoPulse for ~$597m (KRW 920B). Under the agreement, management rights transfer once shareholders appoint a NeoPulse-designated director at an Extraordinary General Meeting. NeoPulse, a South Korean SPV established on Oct 28, 2025, is wholly owned by Hong Kong-based Shengsong Investment, a firm closely tied to the Alibaba Group ecosystem. The stock purchase agreement was signed on Jun 30, 2026, structured as two payments: a 10% down payment of $60m (KRW 92B) upon signing, with the remaining $537m (KRW 828B) due on Oct 30, 2026. NeoPulse held a 313,053-share (0.92%) stake prior to the deal and will hold 13,663,791 shares (40.25%) upon completion, becoming Wemade’s largest shareholder.

The deal priced Wemade’s shares at KRW 68,910, a ~299% premium over the KRW 17,260 close the day before disclosure, far above the 20%-30% typical for domestic control deals. Shares rose to KRW 19,330 on the disclosure date, then hit the daily upper limit the next session, closing at KRW 25,100 on Jul 1, 2026, up 29.85% from that level. Before the announcement, Wemade’s stock had been under sustained pressure, falling 56.3% from peak to trough between January and June 2026. From the start of the year through the disclosure, shares were down 27.9%, badly trailing the KOSDAQ Composite index, which was roughly flat over the same stretch at -3.1%. Fellow KOSDAQ-listed gaming stocks were down too, with Kakao Games off 49.6% and Nexon Games off 30.5% over the same period.

Wemade’s flagship IP traces back to Legend of Mir 2, the 2001 hit that captured up to 65% of China’s online gaming market in 2004 and remains the franchise the group licenses today. Its modern portfolio splits into two lines: mobile MMORPGs built around blockchain and NFT mechanics, and newer PC & Console titles aimed at global platforms. MIR4 and Night Crows anchor the blockchain line on the WEMIX 3.0 network; both are built around tradable character NFTs and utilize the DRACO and CROW utility tokens, respectively, with Night Crows leveraging Unreal Engine 5.

On PC & Console, Wemade has pursued more conventional monetization with Legend of Ymir, a Norse mythology-themed MMORPG, and The Midnight Walkers, a zombie extraction shooter, both of which launched on Steam in 2026. The pairing signals a deliberate diversification beyond blockchain-tied mobile MMORPGs toward mainstream PC & Console audiences.

NeoPulse’s rationale centers on three drivers:

Mir IP control — Legend of Mir-licensed games have generated $20B in cumulative revenue across China since 2001 through more than 80 licensed titles, remakes, and spin-offs, with Wemade’s own Legend of Mir royalties totaling $500m since 2016; direct ownership lets NeoPulse bypass domestic publishing intermediaries, fast-track Chinese game-license approvals, and deepen ties with local distributors.
AI-driven production — spanning asset and coding automation, NVIDIA-assisted real-time rendering, and AI-driven NPCs. One example is Asterion, an adaptive AI boss character that Wemade Next (one of Wemade’s development studios) built with NVIDIA’s ACE platform for the upcoming MIR5.
Proven blockchain execution — the WEMIX 3.0 mainnet has processed over $11B in cumulative transaction volume and has a total value locked-to-market cap ratio of 2.27x. Combined with MIR4 and Night Crows‘ track record as commercially successful blockchain MMORPGs, this gives NeoPulse a proven blueprint for Web3 monetization in markets where token mechanics remain viable.

Revenue rose 13% YoY in FY2024, then fell 17% in FY2025, while operating income swung from a loss to sustained profit, up 106% and 45% YoY in those same years, lifting the margin from -18% to +2%. The swing traces mainly to Night Crows‘ lifecycle: its 2024 global launch drove a revenue spike that normalized in 2025 as the initial user surge cooled. That decline was sharpened by the WEMIX delisting, when South Korean exchanges pulled the token in Jun’25 over disclosure concerns, making it harder for players to trade or cash out and curbing the token-based spending that drives Wemade’s blockchain game revenue.

Total game revenue followed a similar arc, up 11% YoY in FY2024 before falling ~15% YoY in FY2025, as mobile revenue cooled with the maturation of legacy live-service titles and mobile game downloads slowed across the industry. PC’s contribution has grown only incrementally so far; whether Wemade’s 2026 Steam launches of Legend of Ymir and The Midnight Walkers move that needle further remains to be seen.

The deal closes out Park Kwan-Ho’s 26-year run as Wemade’s controlling shareholder and hands the company’s core asset, the Mir franchise, to new ownership. We will continue to monitor how NeoPulse approaches AI development and China expansion for the Mir franchise, and whether the WEMIX platform is preserved, spun off, or wound down under the new ownership structure.