Webzen Announces New Hires

LOS ANGELES – August 11, 2005 - WEBZEN America, Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of global online entertainment leader, WEBZEN, Inc. (NASDAQ: WZEN), announced today that it has filled several key staff positions for its newly established U.S. operation.  Drawing talent from some of today’s top online and video game publishing companies including NCsoft, Atari Inc., and Turbine, Inc., WEBZEN America, Inc. has hired Sven Hindman as the company’s head of customer relationship management, Steve Cavazos as human resources director, and Aaron Rigby and Mike Markin as senior producer and senior brand manager for Soul of the Ultimate Nation� (SUN), respectively.

“WEBZEN is extremely proud that our great reputation and exciting product line up slated for North America allows us to attract some of the best talent available from across the industry,” said Nam Ju Kim, CEO of WEBZEN, Inc.  “WEBZEN is poised to become a top tier online game developer, publisher, distributor and service operator in North America. These stellar new additions to our WEBZEN America team are a testament to our commitment to building a solid foundation to full fill that vision.”

Sven Hindman joins WEBZEN America, Inc. as the director of customer relationship management.  Mr. Hindman will be responsible for ensuring that WEBZEN America, Inc. delivers world-class customer support for its suite of online game services. As a customer service and technical operation industry veteran with more than 15 years experience, Mr. Hindman joins WEBZEN America, Inc. from Turbine, Inc., a developer and operator of massively multiplayer online games.  At Turbine Inc., he served as director of customer relationship management, and was instrumental in designing and implementing Turbine’s first ever billing software solution.  He also created, developed and managed Turbine’s vigorous 24-7 customer service and billing support department.
 
Steve Cavazos joins WEBZEN America, Inc., as the director of human resources.  Mr. Cavazos will lead the company’s aggressive employee recruitment and retention campaign as it continues to add top talent from across digital entertainment industry.   Mr. Cavazos brings nearly a decade of human resources experience to WEBZEN America, Inc., including 5 years in management positions at public corporations.  Prior to WEBZEN America Inc., Mr. Cavazos served as a core member of the human resources team for global games publisher, Atari Inc. At Atari, Mr. Cavazos was responsible for all HR functions for the company’s Santa Monica office.  His responsibilities included executing the recruitment strategy for Atari’s west coast division and overseeing all HR functions for Atari’s Santa Monica location.
 
Aaron Rigby serves as senior producer on WEBZEN’s highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Soul of the Ultimate Nation� (SUN). Working directly with WEBZEN’s S-Studio development team, Mr. Rigby will manage SUN’s production to ensure it is properly localized and customized for the North American and European markets. As a video game industry veteran, Mr. Rigby brings to WEBZEN America Inc. extensive game production experience for a diverse range of software and hardware platforms, as well as game genres.  Mr. Rigby has worked for some of the most impressive names in the video game industry. Prior to joining WEBZEN America, Inc., he served as the U.S. producer for Lineage® II at NCsoft. Mr. Rigby’s previous experience also includes production work at Phantagram Interactive on several Xbox and PC titles, such as Phantom Crash and Kingdom Under Fire:  War of Heroes, and at Rockstar Games on several high profile titles including Mafia, Grand Theft Auto 3, Max Payne and Myth 3.

Mike Markin joins WEBZEN America, Inc. as senior brand manager on Soul of the Ultimate Nation� (SUN).  He brings more than 15 years of extensive product marketing and consulting expertise to WEBZEN America, Inc.  In this role he is responsible for defining, delivering and packaging market strategies for SUN’s game products and services. Prior to joining WEBZEN America Inc., Mr. Markin served as a product marketing manager at NCsoft, managing North American marketing initiatives for Lineage® II, a popular and successful MMORPG.  His previous experience also includes spearheading product launches at several other leading game publishers and developers, including NovaLogic and Interplay.
 
About WEBZEN Inc.
Based in Seoul, Korea, WEBZEN Inc. has become a global leader in the MMOG market, and has developed some of the world’s top online game and client/server technologies.  Already having achieved critical mass in Asian markets with publishing arms in Taiwan, China, Japan, Philippines, and Thailand, WEBZEN Inc. has established WEBZEN America, a wholly owned US subsidiary based in Los Angeles. WEBZEN America leverages WEBZEN technology and partners with some of the most well-known names in the video games industry to deliver some of the most compelling, visually stunning graphics available in persistent world games. WEBZEN and WEBZEN America are poised to launch a diverse portfolio of online products and services, beginning with the highly anticipated fantasy MMORPG SUN, the Unreal 3.0 engine-based MMOFPS HUXLEY, and the original action MMOG All Points Bulletin (APB.)
 
For more information about WEBZEN products and services, go to www.webzengames.com.