{"id":49688,"date":"2025-07-04T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49688"},"modified":"2025-07-03T16:51:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T07:51:25","slug":"dave-the-diver-studio-to-keep-making-lower-budget-games-as-its-role-allows-parent-company-nexon-to-take-creative-risks-without-facing-expensive-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dave-the-diver-studio-to-keep-making-lower-budget-games-as-its-role-allows-parent-company-nexon-to-take-creative-risks-without-facing-expensive-consequences\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave the Diver studio to keep making lower-budget games, as its role allows parent company Nexon to take creative risks without facing expensive consequences\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As indie-looking as Mintrocket<\/strong>\u2019s debut title Dave the Diver may be, the studio itself is anything but. Previously a sub-brand of Nexon \u2013 a South Korean company whose primary focus includes high-budget and live-service titles like The First Descendant<\/a> and The First Berserker: Khazan , Mintrocket<\/a> was created to develop low-risk, high-reward titles that wouldn\u2019t severely impact the parent company if they failed. Mintrocket has since become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexon, but its humble origins remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 4Gamer interview<\/a>, Mintrocket CEO Jaeho Hwang explained that the studio was formed as part of Nexon\u2019s \u201cBig & Little Strategy.\u201d Nexon\u2019s effort to develop more unique and creative games (as opposed to only \u201csafe\u201d projects with predictable reception) spurred the company to divide its efforts into big projects (those with a high success rate) and smaller projects (those that allow for more creative freedom). While Nexon handled development and publishing for the bigger projects, Mintrocket was put in charge of the smaller, more experimental ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dave<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hwang says that the Big & Little Strategy was born out of the current state of the game industry, where development costs are rising, but the reception of big, triple-A games is becoming more hit-or-miss<\/a>, forcing developers to stick to making sequels and remakes of already established IPs. \u201c<\/em>I don’t think there is anyone who could have predicted the success of games like Balatro and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It is difficult to predict the future and build a strategy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Nexon\u2019s company structure is centered around creating and maintaining large-scale, live-service games, it made sense for it to handle the bigger projects (there would also be a certain level of quality expected from Nexon-attached titles). Meanwhile, Mintrocket, with its smaller-scale of operations, established its own way of working, leading to it becoming its own subsidiary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Dave the Diver\u2019s success and Mintrocket having more creative control over its projects, the studio still plans to continue making small-scale games. This is because it has already fostered a healthy work ethic centered around making unique games with a small number of people.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave the Diver creator Jaeho Hwang says his studio will stick to making unique, smaller-scale games, true to their original purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":49692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-49688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nDave the Diver studio to keep making lower-budget games, as its role allows parent company Nexon to take creative risks without facing expensive consequences\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dave the Diver creator Jaeho Hwang says his studio will stick to making unique, smaller-scale games, true to their original purpose.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dave-the-diver-studio-to-keep-making-lower-budget-games-as-its-role-allows-parent-company-nexon-to-take-creative-risks-without-facing-expensive-consequences\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dave the Diver studio to keep making lower-budget games, as its role allows parent company Nexon to take creative risks without facing expensive consequences\u00a0 - 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