A major warning: the following article was created by combining information retrieved by Google’s Gemini, so it may contain factual errors (e.g., the estimated value of the Pangya IP today). However, in my opinion, it is still realistic regarding the current state of the IP and its potential future plans. I have removed some information which has not been backed by actual facts; corrections and further thoughts are, of course, welcome.
NCSoft and their Pangya IP
NCSoft has not released any news, public statements, or even indirect hints regarding the Pangya franchise since the closure of Ntreev Soft; the company has effectively archived the IP. However, several corporate developments and industry movements offer an indirect look at where things stand.
Following Ntreev Soft’s bankruptcy filing, the official IP rights and patents for Pangya and Trickster legally reverted directly back to the parent company, NCSoft. NCSoft currently holds the intellectual property but has chosen not to mention it in any of its public-facing material. In late 2025 and early 2026 corporate strategy briefings, NCSoft announced a major corporate pivot to aggressively break into the global mobile casual gaming market. Rather than reviving legacy casual IPs like Pangya, they are doing this by establishing a brand new “Mobile Casual Center” and acquiring active mobile studios (such as Springcomes).[1][2][3]
While NCSoft remains silent, the original creators of Pangya have moved on. Twohand Games—a studio founded by the original creator of Ntreev Soft and staffed largely by former Pangya developers—released a game called Golf Super Crew. This could be considered as the closest thing to a modern, indirect continuation of Pangya’s gameplay style, independent of NCSoft.
Essentially, NCSoft is treating Pangya as a closed chapter, focusing its casual gaming future on entirely new studio acquisitions rather than its legacy catalog.
TwoHands and their relationship with Pangya
Twohand Games has never explicitly mentioned or hinted at Pangya by name. They are legally and strictly prohibited from doing so. Because NCSoft owns 100% of the Pangya intellectual property, trademarks, and characters, any marketing or official communication from Twohand Games that references Pangya could trigger immediate trademark infringement lawsuits.[4]
However, Twohand Games speaks to Pangya fans entirely through design and lineage rather than words. The studio was founded by the original creator of Ntreev Soft. When Ntreev began struggling under NCSoft, a massive wave of key developers, designers, and programmers who spent a decade building Pangya migrated directly to Twohand Games. The team built the game using a highly accurate physics engine and custom character outfits—the exact structural DNA that made Pangya an arcade-golf classic.[5] Interestingly, Golf Super Crew even doesn’t allow “Pangya” or “Pang-Ya” to be used as an username (this has been personally verified by myself. ~Varthall) While the studio stays silent to avoid legal trouble, they intentionally marketed it to global casual audiences as a return to “classic, fast-paced arcade golf gameplay”. The game could be therefore seen as an unofficial, spiritual continuation of Pangya.
Could TwoHands someday buy the Pangya assets from NCSoft?
The realistic chances of Twohand Games buying the Pangya assets from NCSoft are extremely low. In the gaming industry, several heavy financial, strategic, and legal barriers stand in the way of a smaller indie studio reclaiming a dormant IP from a massive conglomerate.
NCSoft originally bought Ntreev Soft for roughly $96 million USD. While the studio was closed down, the intellectual property of a globally recognized franchise still holds a multi-million dollar evaluation on NCSoft’s corporate balance sheet. Twohand Games, by comparison, operates as a smaller independent developer. Even with the backing of their publisher, Wemade, for their current game Golf Super Crew, funding a multi-million dollar acquisition just for an IP name is rarely seen as a smart business move for a studio of their size.
NCSoft is also historically known for tightly holding onto its intellectual property, even if a franchise has been inactive for a decade. They rarely, if ever, sell off their back-catalog assets to third parties. Instead, they prefer to keep dormant IPs tucked away in their archives just in case they decide to license it, use it for cross-promotion in another game, or attempt another mobile spin-off (like the previously attempted Pangya M) years down the road.
From a business standpoint, Twohand Games has very little incentive to buy Pangya. Legally buying the assets means acquiring code and server infrastructure that is nearly 20 years old. Twohand Games has already built a highly modernized, custom physics and graphics engine from scratch for Golf Super Crew. Also, they don’t need to buy the trademark to attract the Pangya crowd. By building their own universe, they keep 100% of their profits and avoid paying millions to NCSoft just to put the Pangya logo on the box.
How much is the Pangya IP currently worth?
NCSoft has never publicly disclosed a specific, standalone valuation for the Pangya intellectual property (IP). In corporate accounting, large conglomerates bundle dormant back-catalog games together into a single line item on their balance sheet under “Intangible Assets” (which totals roughly 2 trillion Korean Won across NCSoft’s entire corporate portfolio), rather than pricing individual dead franchises.[6] However, using standard video game industry intellectual property valuation metrics, the current market value of the Pangya IP can be at least estimated.
When NCSoft originally acquired 76% of Ntreev Soft in 2012, the entire deal was valued at $96.7 million USD.[7][8] That valuation was split across Ntreev’s active studios, staff, tech, and its two massive flagship franchises: Pangya and Trickster. In the modern gaming market, an entertainment IP’s value is determined using the Relief from Royalty method—essentially, how much cash an active product can generate based on brand strength, active community size, and recent sequel success.[9] Because Pangya currently meets the following criteria, its market value has cratered significantly:
- there are zero official servers operating globally, meaning the IP brings in $0 in protected licensing revenue.
- NCSoft completely canceled Pangya M due to development struggles, proving to investors that reviving the name is difficult.
- the original studio (Ntreev Soft) has been entirely dissolved.
If a studio like Twohand Games wanted to buy the Pangya trademark and character rights from NCSoft, it wouldn’t cost $96 million anymore. A dormant, legacy PC casual IP of Pangya’s profile might sit at a distressed valuation of $500,000 to $2 million USD. While that sounds relatively cheap for a multi-million-dollar publisher like Wemade, it is still an expensive price to pay for a “name”, especially when a studio can spend that exact same money creating an entirely new, unencumbered brand like Golf Super Crew.
Could NCSoft acquire Twohand Games someday?
It is entirely possible. In fact, recent shifts in the gaming industry make this scenario much more plausible now than it was just a few years ago. NCSoft’s aggressive corporate pivot, combined with Twohand Games’ current publishing setup, creates a logical path for a potential acquisition. If Twohand Games’ Golf Super Crew continues to show strong casual player engagement (see their recent award recognition), they fit the exact profile of the types of studios NCSoft’s Mobile Casual Center is actively hunting.[10] If NCSoft were to buy Twohand Games, it would solve a major historical issue for the corporate giant. NCSoft owns the Pangya IP but lacks the developers who understand how to make it work. Twohand Games has the original Pangya developers but lacks the trademark. By acquiring Twohand Games, NCSoft could effortlessly merge the developers back with their legacy assets, allowing them to officially market Golf Super Crew as the ultimate, authorized Pangya successor—or launch a proper revival.
The biggest hurdle to an NCSoft acquisition is Twohand Games’ current partner, Wemade. Wemade is a massive South Korean gaming heavyweight and competitor to NCSoft. They published Golf Super Crew and integrated it directly into their Wemix blockchain ecosystem. For NCSoft to buy Twohand Games, they would either have to wait out Twohand’s publishing contract with Wemade or buy out Wemade’s stake in the studio. Because Wemade is heavily invested in keeping high-quality multiplayer games on their Wemix platform, they would also likely fight aggressively to keep Twohand Games from being absorbed by a competitor.
Conclusion
If Twohand Games remains small and independent after their current publishing cycles, they are a prime target for NCSoft’s ongoing M&A wave. If NCSoft approaches them with a massive check and the legal rights to the Pangya franchise, it would be an offer the original creators would find incredibly hard to refuse.
Varthall
