Colopl aims to publish multiple high quality VR titles annually

Colopl NI, a US subsidiary of Japanese mobile publisher Colopl (Rune Story), has appointed a new CEO to oversee the company's focus on expanding into virtual reality. Jikhan Jung, previously the CEO and co-founder of Gala-Net and executive producer at Kabam, will serve as the CEO and will look to build Colopl's VR team.

"As part of its strategy for explosive growth and leadership positioning, the company will recruit top talent for its VR gaming-focused development, evaluate and sign new external projects and studios, all while supplementing its existing mobile gaming prowess," the company said in a press release. "A key advantage is the company's location in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of VR talent. Colopl NI's goal is to release multiple high quality VR gaming titles annually starting this year."

Jung commented: "Colopl Group believes that virtual reality will be a totally new platform that changes our daily life, as the internet changed our life 20 years ago. We will strive to develop VR games which provide the best VR experience so players don't want to come back to the real life. We plan to develop outstanding VR games and I am excited to ramp up our Colopl NI team to succeed in the new VR reality."

In December, parent company Colopl announced a $50 million fund for VR development, and today the firm noted in its press release that it has already assigned "several dozen" developers to VR games projects. In addition to games, Colopl recently established 360Channel, Inc. to focus on 360-degree video (something Facebook and Oculus have done as well).

Colopl may not be a known entity to most gamers in the US, but with the US subsidiary aggressively pursuing VR, the company is hoping to change that. The Japanese parent certainly has the resources - it has a market cap of approximately $2 billion and annual revenue of $700 million.