Launching Elsword in North America

I found the niche US fans who had already played the Korean version and engaged directly in their communities. The audience was small, but it gave us credible early advocates and real feedback before the broader push.

I positioned Elsword for a second niche: anime fans. I created the brand line "Play Your Anime" so the game could compete on identity and fandom, not just genre features, in a crowded MMO market.

I reviewed every piece of copy myself and polished the tone for a US audience. Strong localization was not a nice-to-have. It was how we earned trust with players who had never heard of the franchise.

I helped shape the free-to-play monetization model and pricing strategy for North America, aligning offers with how US players expected to discover, try, and spend in a live-service title.

I built the pre-registration campaign and PR push that turned awareness into a measurable pipeline. Every milestone fed the next: press beats, community updates, and registration goals tied to launch readiness.

I developed in-game and community events that did not exist in the Korean playbook for this market. They gave players reasons to show up at launch and kept concurrent users climbing through the first weeks.