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DRX built its name inside competitive gaming, growing into one of Korea’s most recognized esports organizations with a young, globally engaged fan base. Now the group is betting that base can carry it somewhere new:
a broader digital entertainment business spanning K-dramas, game publishing and original content IP.
“I think the timing feels right because the way people consume entertainment has already changed,” Can Yang, DRX co-CEO, tells Variety. “Our audience moves very naturally between esports, games, streaming and other forms of content, so we do not see these as completely separate businesses.”
Leading that push is WebsCreative, a DRX subsidiary since 2022. The unit started out primarily as a marketing shop, with more than 20 years running film and streaming campaigns, before moving up the chain into game publishing and, in the past few years, into developing, investing in and producing content of its own. DRX intends to put fresh capital behind the unit, building out its content team and sharpening its capacity to source, back and deliver entertainment projects.
The clearest sign of that ambition is a pair of unannounced K-drama projects DRX has signed agreements around. “There are two projects, and both are now fully cast,” Yang says. “The casts are made up of actors who are very well known in Korea, and in both cases the broadcasters taking and airing the content are the ones behind some of the biggest successes in Korean drama. So there is a lot of expectation around them.”
DRX itself is staying largely out of the way on both. The first project is already in production, with WebsCreative overseeing everything from filming through editing and carrying full responsibility for delivering the finished drama to its broadcaster. The second is one where WebsCreative invested in the intellectual property at an early stage; it is set to air on a major Korean broadcaster and a global streaming platform, with WebsCreative co-producing alongside the existing IP owner rather than leading the production outright. Both are commissioned for Korean broadcasters first, though Yang says conversations with international platforms and distributors are already happening in parallel.
Picking which projects to back, Yang says, comes down to a specific set of criteria. “The filter we apply is closer to whether a project has market relevance, real audience demand, the ability to scale, and a credible path to long-term monetization.” That discipline, he argues, is where WebsCreative’s marketing roots become an asset rather than a limitation. Rather than compete with established Korean production companies on scale, Yang frames the strategy as additive: “The opportunity for us is to combine their production expertise with what we already understand about digital audiences, marketing and fandom.”
That caution extends to how DRX talks about its place in an increasingly crowded and expensive K-drama market. “We are very conscious that this is a competitive market, so we are not looking at it as a question of scale,” Yang says. “For us, the opportunity is to be selective about the projects we back and to work with strong production partners where we believe we can add something different.” He points to DRX’s existing global, youth-skewing audience and WebsCreative’s marketing background as the combination the company is leaning on, alongside a growing footprint in Southeast Asia.
The long-term goal, Yang says, is not just to invest in other people’s shows. “Over the long term we want to build the capability to develop and originate our own IP, rather than only participate as an investor in projects created by others.” Co-production and investment deals are the near-term path there, he says, as WebsCreative builds experience before eventually creating and owning more of its own content.
Game publishing is the other new pillar, and Yang is careful not to overstate DRX’s edge there this early. “Because DRX operates in esports, games are a space we know closely – the titles, the platforms and the audiences that play them.” Pair that with WebsCreative’s marketing background, he says, and publishing becomes a natural extension rather than a stretch into unfamiliar territory.
None of these pieces are meant to stay siloed. “We do not see esports, game publishing and content IP as completely separate businesses,” Yang says. “Over time, we want to create a broader entertainment integration where those different areas can support each other.” Not every project will span every format, he adds, but having the capabilities under one roof gives DRX more options for how IP moves and grows.
That is where DRX’s esports fandom comes back into the picture, though Yang is cautious about how far to stretch it. “It is definitely valuable, but we also do not assume that an esports audience will automatically become an audience for every drama or game we launch.” Each project, he says, still has to earn a broader audience on its own merits. Looking further out, he expects esports to follow the trajectory of traditional sport, with players eventually cast in film and television roles in their own right – a shift that would let DRX’s fandom play a bigger part in what the company can do.
Asked how DRX separates itself from Korea’s much larger entertainment conglomerates, Yang comes back to the company’s roots. “For us the biggest differentiator is that our core comes from esports. Esports is one of the fastest-growing parts of the entertainment industry, and we already have an established presence in it.” The content IP business is still at a preliminary stage, he acknowledges, but he sees a future where DRX’s esports personalities, its published games and its content IP reinforce one another as the broader K-content wave keeps building.
Geographically, the ambition stretches beyond Korea. “Southeast Asia is a particular priority,” Yang says. “We are already building our presence in markets including Vietnam Singapore, and Indonesia, and we see those markets as important as we expand across esports, game publishing and content.” Korean IP stays at the center of the strategy, he says, even as the business itself grows more regional.
Esports remains core to how DRX built its name, and Yang does not expect that to change. “Esports will always be a very important part of DRX because that is where the company built its brand and its audience,” he says. “But the direction we are moving in is clearly broader than esports alone.” Over time, he says, “we want DRX to be recognized as a broader digital entertainment company, with esports remaining one of its core pillars.”
