KOG Studios

KOG Co., better known as KOG Studios, is a South Korean game development company based in Daegu. They specialize in producing online free-to-play games, and currently publish the side-scrolling action MMORPG, Elsword and the early access action MMORPG, KurtzPel: Bringer of Chaos. They have also developed the game Grand Chase.

KOG Co.
TypePrivate
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMay 1, 2000 (2000-05-01)
HeadquartersDaegu, South Korea
Key people
Jong-Won Lee (CEO)
SubsidiariesKOG Games
Websitekog.co.kr

History

KOG Co. was founded on May 1, 2000. Their first game, Grand Chase, an action side-scrolling MMORPG, launched on August 2003. After being a large success in South Korea, the game expanded to mainland China and Japan, as well as the Americas in 2006.[1] It was notable for reaching mass popularity in South America, breaking the record of most played online game in Brazil.[2] Ntreev Soft began publishing Grand Chase for North America in early 2008. KOG ceased support for the game in 2015, 12 years after its initial release.

In 2010, KOG Studios partnered with Philippine company Level Up! Games, the publisher of Grand Chase in South America, to found Kill3r Combo, a subsidiary company headquartered in Irvine, California, with the objective of bringing KOG's games to North America.[3] Their first game was Elsword, which began open beta testing in North America on April 27, 2011, and released on July 2, 2014.

In June 2012, KOG Studios purchased LevelUp!’s interest in Kill3rCombo to become the sole owner, and officially changed the company's name to KOG Games Inc.[4] Since then, KOG Games has been responsible for publishing their games in the Americas.

Although Elsword received some criticism for pay to win systems,[5] the game was generally well-received, and peaked with 2,500 active players on Steam in August 2013.

KurtzPel Bringer of Chaos was first announced in the South Korean game exhibition G-Star 2017,[6] and entered worldwide Steam early access on April 30, 2019.

KOG Games

KOG Games (previously as Kill3r Combo from 2010 to 2012) is a subsidiary company of KOG Co., and since 2012, publishes games from KOG in the Americas. It is headquartered in Irvine, California and currently publishes Elsword and KurtzPel on the Steam store. KOG Games also briefly published HeroWarz, a MMORPG developed by A.Storm, in July 2016, but the servers were closed a few months later.[7]

Games
Year Title Platform(s) Genre Publisher(s) Status
2003 Grand Chase PC Action Side-scrolling 2D MMORPG Ntreev Soft (2008-2015) (NA) Closed
2007 Elsword PC Action Side-scrolling 2.5D MMORPG KOG Games (2011-) (NA) Active
2012 Fighters Club PC Brawler Action MMORPG Nexon (2012-2015) (KOR) Closed[9]
2014 Ultimate Race PC Racing MMORPG Nexon[10] (KOR) Unknown
2015 AIMA Online PC Action MMORPG Nexon (2015-2016)[11] (KOR) Closed[12]
2018 Grand Chase: Dimensional Chaser Android, iOS Mobile Real-time strategy MMORPG KOG Games (2018)[13] (WW) Active
2020 KurtzPel: Bringer of Chaos PC Action KOG Games (TBA) (WW) Active

References
  1. "'Grand Chase is here! Start Playing Now!'" (in Portuguese). Level Up! Games. 2006-08-02.
  2. "KOG Claims that '3 Heroes' has achieved good results in Brazil" (in Korean). GNN Gamer. 2010-02-18. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  3. "Kill3rCombo Unveils First Game Elsword". IGN. 2011-02-24. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  4. "Kill3rCombo Fully Acquired by KOG, Changes Name". MMORPG.com. 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2013-02-19.
  5. Taylor, Kristin (2012-06-16). "Elsword Review". GameCritics. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  6. "KOG's new PC online game 'KurtzPel', first released at G-Star 2017" (in Korean). INVEN. 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  7. "Players reminded of March 26th pause". MMORPG.com. 2017-03-19. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  8. "Elsword developer KOG will launch the fighting game Fighters club in Taiwan next year" (in Chinese). YamNews. 2013-12-05.
  9. "KOG Games annnounces closure of korean Fighters Club servers". MMOHuts. 2015-10-04.
  10. "Ultimate Race developer KOG reveals its first racing online game". MMOCulture. 2014-10-02.
  11. "Aima - Nexon Korea launching new KOG action online game next week". MMOCulture. 2015-09-27.
  12. "Aima - Nexon Korea is shutting down action MMORPG after 14 months". MMOCulture. 2016-10-13.
  13. "Grand Chase of Kakao officially opened". KOG. 2018-01-30.
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