Nexon picks up Pixelberry

Nexon is acquiring Pixelberry, the Mountain View, California-based developer of narrative-focused mobile titles like High School Story and Choices: Stories You Play. In announcing the deal, Nexon president and CEO Owen Mahoney said the South Korean PC and mobile publisher was interested in the unique nature of Pixelberry's games.

"The games industry and mobile app stores are flooded with the same types of games," Mahoney said. "Pixelberry Studios has created a compelling interactive storytelling apps that serve the massive, yet hard-to-reach and underserved, audience of women. We are looking forward to building the future of mobile fiction together with Oliver Miao and Pixelberry's diverse and talented team to create engaging experiences that can be enjoyed by for years, even decades."

Pixelberry was founded in 2012, and prides itself on using its games to educate as well as entertain, and having a socially positive impact. The Nexon announcement makes no mention of whether that focus would be maintained after the acquisition.

"Pixelberry is at the intersection of storytelling and games, bringing interactive fiction to a whole new audience that would never have considered themselves gamers before." Pixelberry CEO Oliver Miao said. "Nexon is the perfect choice for our unified vision for creating and leading a new category of mobile fiction for readers around the world."

One thing Nexon has committed to is global expansion and localization of Choices, bringing the title to more Asian markets in particular.