Where gaming's power currently concentrates
Each year since 2007, Nexon has gathered the people who build games into a single space to take stock of where the craft is heading. This year, for the 19th edition of its Developers Conference, that reckoning centers on artificial intelligence — not as a curiosity on the margins, but as the animating question of the moment. From June 16 to 18 at the company's Pangyo headquarters, developers, artists, and technologists from studios as varied as Google DeepMind and Embark Studios will sit together and ask what it means to make games when the tools themselves are learning.
- The gaming industry's most consequential Korean developer gathering is pivoting hard toward AI, treating machine learning not as a trend but as the defining challenge studios must now master.
- Fifty-one sessions and eight panel discussions compress an enormous range of urgency — from how to ship multiple games at once to what it means to build the game you actually wanted to play.
- Speakers from Krafton, Roblox, Google DeepMind, Snowflake, and Embark Studios signal that this is no longer a domestic conversation — global power players are showing up to compare notes.
- Registration opens May 19 on a first-come, first-served basis, and the three-day window closes May 21 — a tight gate for an event the industry treats as a calendar anchor.
- Beyond the sessions, an art exhibition of 150-plus works and an outdoor play zone insist that amid all the algorithmic debate, games remain objects of human imagination and joy.
Nexon will begin accepting applications on May 19 for in-person attendance at the 2026 Nexon Developers Conference, the gathering that has anchored the Korean game development calendar since 2007. Now in its 19th year, the event runs June 16 through 18 at the company's Pangyo headquarters south of Seoul — and this edition arrives with a clear sense of purpose: artificial intelligence is no longer a sidebar, it is the throughline.
The program spans 51 sessions across game design, production, operations, and programming, with a speaker roster that maps where the industry's weight currently sits. Krafton, Roblox, Google DeepMind, Snowflake, and Embark Studios are all represented. Embark, the Swedish studio behind ARC Raiders, has committed to three sessions dedicated to how AI and machine learning have been woven into their actual creative and technical work — a sign that these conversations have moved from theoretical to operational.
Eight panel discussions give industry leaders space to debate specific tensions: how studios develop multiple games simultaneously, what the so-called AX journey looks like in practice for companies like Nexon and Krafton, and what it means to build the game you genuinely wanted to make. Nexon Games CEO Park Yong-hyun and Krafton VP Lim Kyung-young are among those scheduled to take part.
The conference also makes room for what algorithms cannot replace. An art exhibition at Nexon headquarters will display more than 150 pieces of 2D and 3D game artwork alongside sound design work, and an outdoor zone will offer playable mini-games, experience booths, and merchandise tied to Nexon's flagship properties.
Registration opens May 19 and closes May 21 on a first-come, first-served basis. The 2026 NDC arrives at a moment when studios everywhere are weighing how to integrate AI responsibly into their pipelines — and Nexon's decision to make that question the conference's defining theme suggests the industry knows this particular window, before the landscape shifts again, is worth documenting carefully.
Nexon is opening its doors next month for what has become the gaming industry's most significant gathering of developers, artists, and technologists. Starting May 19, the company will accept applications for in-person attendance at the 2026 Nexon Developers Conference, the event that has anchored the Korean game development calendar since 2007. This year's edition, running June 16 through 18 at the company's Pangyo headquarters south of Seoul, marks the conference's 19th iteration—and a notably deliberate pivot toward artificial intelligence as a central theme.
The scale alone signals how seriously the industry takes this gathering. Nexon, led by co-CEOs Kang Dae-hyun and Kim Jung-wook, has assembled 51 sessions spanning the full spectrum of game creation: design, production, operations, programming. The speaker roster reads like a map of where gaming's power currently concentrates. Krafton, the studio behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, will be there. So will Roblox, Google DeepMind, and Snowflake. Embark Studios, the Swedish developer behind the global hit ARC Raiders, has committed to three separate sessions focused specifically on how they've woven AI and machine learning into their creative and technical processes.
What distinguishes 2026's NDC from previous years is the deliberate expansion of AI-focused programming. Rather than treating artificial intelligence as a sidebar or emerging topic, the conference has made it a throughline. Sessions will explore practical applications—how studios are actually using these tools today—alongside the theoretical frameworks and technical know-how that make integration possible. Eight panel discussions have been designed to let industry leaders debate and dissect specific challenges: how to develop multiple games simultaneously, the strategic "AX journey" that both Nexon and Krafton are pursuing, what it means to make the game you actually wanted to play. Park Yong-hyun, CEO of Nexon Games, will sit alongside Lee Kyung-hyuk, editor-in-chief of Game Generation, to discuss the former. Kang Deok-won from Nexon's leadership will join Krafton's VP Lim Kyung-young and Kyung Hee University professor Kim Sang-kyun for the latter.
The conference extends beyond the seminar halls. An art exhibition at the Nexon headquarters will display over 150 pieces of 2D and 3D game artwork alongside game sound design—a reminder that for all the talk of algorithms and machine learning, games remain fundamentally creative objects. An outdoor zone will feature playable mini-games built around Nexon's flagship intellectual properties, experience booths, and merchandise. Registration opens May 19 and runs through May 21 on a first-come, first-served basis via the official NDC website, open to industry professionals and anyone with a genuine interest in how games get made.
The timing matters. As studios worldwide grapple with how to responsibly and effectively integrate AI into their pipelines—from art generation to procedural design to player behavior prediction—Nexon's decision to make this the conference's defining theme signals where the industry believes its future lies. The 2026 NDC will likely become a reference point for how the gaming world is thinking about these tools right now, in this particular moment, before the landscape shifts again.
Notable Quotes
The conference will explore practical applications of AI in game development alongside theoretical frameworks and technical implementation strategies.— Nexon's 2026 NDC programming focus
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does a single conference matter this much to the gaming industry? It's just three days in June.
Because it's the only place where the entire ecosystem gathers at once—developers from competing studios, engineers from tech companies, artists, business leaders. You get the full picture of what's actually being built and how.
And the AI focus this year—is that new, or has it been building?
It's been building, but this year they've made it explicit and central. Eight panels dedicated to it. That's not accidental. Studios are struggling with these tools right now, and they need to hear from peers who are further along.
Who benefits most from a conference like this?
The mid-level developers and technical leads, probably. The ones who need to understand not just what AI can do, but how to actually implement it without breaking their pipeline or their team's workflow.
Embark Studios is sending three people. Why would a successful independent studio spend that much time explaining their process?
Reputation, partly. But also because they've solved problems that everyone else is still facing. When you've shipped a global hit using these new tools, people listen. And sharing knowledge builds goodwill in an industry that's often competitive.
What happens after the conference ends?
The sessions get recorded and distributed. The conversations continue online. But the real value is the three days themselves—the hallway conversations, the connections made, the sense that you're not alone in figuring this out.