Nekcom

Nekcom is a video game development studio headquartered in Wuhan, China, with a U.S. presence in New York City. The company was founded in 2011 by a team including Xiangyu Luo, Jensen Fang, Michael Huang, Guangzhi Ma, and Sherry Dong, with Luo serving as CEO. Luo's journey in the gaming industry began in 2004, with roles as a level designer, game designer, and producer at major companies like Ubisoft and EA before he established Nekcom. This experience was driven by a long-held passion for console gaming and a desire to create distinctive, narrative-driven content.

The firm operates by developing and selling premium games for consoles—including Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, and Nintendo Switch—and PC platforms like Steam. Nekcom's business model focuses on creating and selling these individual game titles directly to consumers. The company has secured a total of $23 million in funding over two rounds, including a Series A round of $8 million in July 2022 led by Galaxy Interactive and a Series B round of $15 million in December 2024. These funds are allocated towards accelerating game development, research and development, and international expansion.

Nekcom's portfolio began with the horror-themed puzzle series "DYING". The first title, "DYING: Reborn," released in 2017, is a first-person escape room experience that challenges players with a variety of puzzles within unsettling environments. A sequel, "DYING: 1983," is currently in development using Unreal Engine 5, aiming to leverage the advanced haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller to deepen player immersion. The studio's most anticipated project is "Showa American Story," a post-apocalyptic action RPG scheduled for a 2025 release on PlayStation 5 and PC. Set in an alternate timeline where the U.S. has become a Japanese colony, the game blends 80s American and Japanese pop culture. Players assume the role of "Chouko," a revived stuntwoman on a quest to find her sister and unravel the mystery behind the catastrophic event that reshaped the world.

Keywords: video game development, PC games, console games, action RPG, puzzle games, horror games, game publishing, Showa American Story, DYING Reborn, DYING 1983, Xiangyu Luo, Unreal Engine 5, PlayStation 5 games, Steam games, post-apocalyptic games, escape room games, interactive entertainment, independent game developer, venture capital-backed, Series B