| Industry | Video game developer |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, California |
| Website | http://www.kru.com/ |
Kru Interactive (formerly known as Nexon Inc.) is among the pioneers of online gaming and MMORPGs. Its headquarters is located in Santa Clara, California.
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The South Korea-based game company made a name for itself in the early 1990s with the name Nexon Inc. Nexon launched Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds in 1994, becoming one of the first large MMO titles, released prior to Ultima Online, and making a name for the company. The company has recently expanded into other Asian countries, notably Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore; along with the United States. Nexus was released in the United States in 1996, along with Dark Ages in 1999, followed by Shattered Galaxy (2001). For a short time, Shattered Galaxy was sold in stores in the United States but never sold well because it was offered for free in a long-term open beta and then made available as a pay for play, only four months after commercial launch, from the Shattered Galaxy website. Shattered Galaxy has also been awarded the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Audience Choice Awards, Technical Excellence Award, and Best Game Design at the 2001 Independent Games Festival Awards, however all these awards were won under the old sister company "Nexon" and not Kru itself.
Nexon has also released a few unsuccessful games to the North American audience in beta form which have since been dropped. They include Elemental Saga, QuizQuiz and Elancia. QuizQuiz never left beta stage in North America but was later released through the Singapore division of Nexon, NexonAsia in an English version. QuizQuiz has since evolved into the exclusively Korean and Japanese online game Q-Play, while Elemental Saga was eventually cancelled. NEXON has several games exclusively available to Korean players such as Elancia and Crazy Arcade.
In April 2005, Nexon Inc. split from the Korean division of Nexon Corp. and changed their name to Kru Interactive. They still own and operate the online games NexusTK (aka Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds), Dark Ages and Shattered Galaxy.
Kru has produced several online video games, primarily MMORPGs and online action games. Most games have used a 2D perspective, including side-scrolling, top-down, and isometric perspectives. Newer 3D titles are currently being published. For Dark Ages and NexusTK, various gameplay enhancements can be purchased.