Netmarble showcased three new titles targeting the Japanese market at Tokyo Game Show 2026: Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Strongest, Solo Leveling: KARMA, and Blue Pearl. Yuta Shinbu, Head of Marketing and Partnerships for Netmarble Japan, stated that the goal of their participation was not only to let players experience the games but also to directly understand their appeal and existing issues.
Previously, Netmarble has sequentially released or announced titles with different positioning. Yuta Shinbu stated that the company regards Japan, alongside the United States and China, as one of the three major global gaming markets and has long prioritized the needs of Japanese players.
Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Strongest is a switch-battle RPG emphasizing vertical, one-handed operation, developed for smartphones and PCs. Combat centers on character switching, attempting to combine command selection with action gameplay while focusing on faithfully adapting the original content.
Solo Leveling: KARMA features a top-down perspective and is a lightweight Roguelike action RPG incorporating loot-based gameplay. The title aims to present the action style of the original work while simplifying controls, and fills gaps in the concluded original story through an original plot. Netmarble positions it as the second game in the IP, though its story and genre differ from the first installment.
Blue Pearl is Netmarble's first venture into the bishoujo game genre, proactively planned by the Netmarble N2 team. Positioned as a lighthearted romantic comedy RPG, the game adopts the concept of a "monthly romantic comedy," with plans to add a new heroine and corresponding story each month.
Regarding promotion strategies for the Japanese market, Yuta Shinbu believes that large-scale advertising and exhibition exposure are insufficient to sustain long-term player interest. Teams need to first recognize the unique characteristics of each title and then understand their actual audience through detailed communication, rather than relying on preset assumptions based on age or gender to determine player preferences.
Yuta Shinbu also described the current Japanese mobile game market as "stagnant" rather than declining. He believes that it is increasingly difficult to maintain long-term content cycles for hit products, and rising development costs are driving the industry toward a polarization between high-spec AAA titles and low-budget, quickly developed casual games. Netmarble hopes to gather genuine feedback from every attendee at this exhibition to inform the future development and promotion of its three new titles in the Japanese market.