Team Behind $22 Billion Grossing Dungeon Fighter Online Is On Indefinite Strike

By Elijah Gonzalez | August 8, 2025 | 2:30pm

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Team Behind $22 Billion Grossing Dungeon Fighter Online Is On Indefinite Strike

Employees at Neople, the South Korean studio behind the multi-billion-dollar-grossing Dungeon Fighter series, recently escalated their indefinite holdout in response to alleged unfair bonus compensation, having increased their strike from three days a week to five starting July 31.

According to a report from ThisIsGame (which was translated by Automaton), the strike was launched in protest of Neople’s bonus policy, which would often award employees with the same performance evaluations different bonus payouts. This caused many to assume that these incentives were being awarded based on employees’ personal relationships with management, instead of based on merit.

On top of this, the union also accused Neople, which is owned by Nexon, of cutting the Dungeon Fighter Mobile team’s bonus by 30% without cause, while granting three executives a combined $20 million in 2024, which was 10 times what they earned the previous year.

In response, the union has demanded clearer guidelines around how bonuses are allocated and the institution of a new system that offers fair compensation based on performance, which they argue will also improve employee productivity and bolster their service. They also said that they refuse to make any concessions on the “direct distribution of operating profits.” The union is demanding that 4% of operating profits be paid directly to employees.

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The same day that the union announced its indefinite five-day-a-week strike, Neople stated that they would be offering an additional $43 million payout to the Dungeon Fighter Mobile team (excluding executives), with around 400 developers getting about 200% of their annual salary, and high-performing workers receiving 300% of their salary in bonuses. The company previously paid out the equivalent of over $70 million to members who contributed to the Chinese launch of Dungeon Fighter Mobile.

A July 16 article by ThisIsGame gives more details on the strike, like how approximately 900 of Neople’s 1,500 workers are participating, and how some teams at the studio were allegedly working close to 100 hours a week to meet Nexon’s demanding content policies, specifically after the company’s recent internal decree that it needed to put out content at double the rate it did previously for Dungeon Fighter Online in certain regions.

For those unaware, Dungeon Fighter Online is a 2D MMORPG with beat ‘em up-inspired combat that was released in 2005. It also happens to be one of the most played games of all time, with 850 million players worldwide. On top of this, it is also one of the highest-grossing games ever, with $22 billion in revenue as of June 2023, proving particularly popular throughout Korea and China. It has had several spin-offs, such as Dungeon Fighter Mobile, the fighting game DNF Duel, this year’s The First Berserker: Khazan, and more, and is one of Nexon’s most lucrative franchises.