The strike at Neople, the studio behind the multibillion-dollar Dungeon Fighter franchise, has intensified. As reported by ThisIsGame, employees of the Nexon-owned subsidiary started organizing walkouts five days a week (as opposed to three) starting July 31. The strike has no set end date and is intended to last until management agrees to clearly explain how performance bonuses are calculated.
Dungeon Fighter Online is one of the highest-grossing games of all time (total lifetime revenue $22 billion USD as of 2024), but Neople’s employees are not happy about how much they’re being paid, especially against the company’s strong financial performance.
The union claims that even when employees get the same performance evaluations, some receive far less bonus payouts than others. The opaque system has raised suspicions about employees’ personal relationships with managers potentially influencing pay. They also accuse Neople of arbitrarily cutting a bonus meant for the Dungeon Fighter Mobile team by 30%, while at the same time giving three company executives a combined $20 million USD last year, which is ten times more than the year before. The union comments that this has “severely damaged the motivation of development team members and Neople employees.”
On the same day the union announced the expanded strike, Neople said it will hand out about $44 million USD in bonuses to the Dungeon Fighter Mobile team. Around 400 developers will get an average of double their annual salary, with top performers getting triple. This comes after an initial payout in February worth around $70 million, meaning the team will receive bonuses totaling more than five times their yearly pay.
Both sides started meeting for negotiations from August 1, initiated by Neople. The company says it wants to settle the dispute and keep game services running smoothly, while the union maintains that there will be “no concessions” on the matter of directly distributing operating profits to employees.
