Kakao buys ArcheAge: the IP and Align Studio
According to MTN, on 8 September 2026 XLGAMES transferred to Align Studio the ArcheAge IP and the ArcheAge S project. That company was new and was driven by Kakao Games, the studio's parent. The only new game still inside XLGAMES was ArcheAge Chronicles.
Our own news piece based on the information from Seo Jeong-geun on MTN (8 September 2026). The full article is in the original, in Korean.
Read the original article on MTN ↗Only one new game stays at XLGAMES
For anyone following ArcheAge Chronicles, the point from MTN is direct. After the move, the only new in-house project was that title, and the company's continuity was tied to how it fared. With the transfer, according to MTN, the studio secured operating funds of nearly 40,000 million won, to finish development and publish the game on its own. Kakao Games, the outlet says, terminated the publishing of ArcheAge Chronicles that it had with XLGAMES.
What the studio said afterwards is in Ham's letter.
What is transferred, and for how much
On 8 September 2026, according to MTN, XLGAMES announced it officially, with Align Studio as the destination. In the package: the intellectual property of ArcheAge and of its sequels, the ArcheAge S project, and assets, contracts, people and debts tied to that. The figure was 39,221,940,000 won, about 29.3 million dollars at that day's approximate exchange rate.
From the buyer's side, Kakao Games was acquiring, via that new company, the ArcheAge IP, the ArcheAge S IP, the development staff and the publishing contracts, for about 39,200 million won. The caption of the MTN image presents ArcheAge S as a game that Kakao Games will service.
Align Studio and the contracts
Align Studio, according to MTN, was a new company, with investment from Kakao Games, parent of XLGAMES. At its head was Kim Kyung-tae, producer of ArcheAge S when the project was at XLGAMES. The publishing contract for that game, Kakao Games already had it with XLGAMES. The development and publishing contract between the two came to link Align Studio with Kakao Games. As its own new game, only ArcheAge Chronicles remained at XLGAMES.
NEXUS looked at the IP earlier
According to MTN, the Korean company NEXUS had sounded out a transfer of the ArcheAge IP. Kakao Games decided to take it in on its own side, and the contract was put together through Align Studio. You'll find the other game in the deal in the key visual news.
Jake Song and the parent
XLGAMES was founded in 2006 by Jake Song (Song Jae-kyung). Before that he had co-founded Nexon with Kim Jung-ju and had moved to NC (NCsoft) as head of development. He drove The Kingdom of the Winds and Lineage. MTN notes that, after he left the studio, the tie with the parent had loosened, and that the company's fate was going to be played out in ArcheAge Chronicles.
Source: MTN · Seo Jeong-geun · 8 September 2026. Text by ArcheAge World based on the published data. Amounts in $: our conversion at the approximate exchange rate of 8 September 2026 (1 $ ≈ 1,340 KRW).