Look, Zynga, MapleStory maker Nexon can make a billion bucks too

Well, at least in Japan. TechCrunch reports that Nexon, the South Korean creator of hit free-to-play game franchise MapleStory, looks to make up to $1.3 billion from its initial public offering (IPO) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company, which has since expanded onto Facebook with a version of MapleStory and two other games, expects to reel in over 100 billion yen.

Better yet, the Nexon IPO could boost the now Japan-based company's market cap, or the public consensus on how much a company is worth, up to between $7.7 and $9 billion. For those keeping score, that's not terribly far off from where Zynga is expected to land. (You know, when its IPO actually happens.) And in the Japanese social game space, that could set Nexon in first place ahead of both DeNA and GREE.

Many credit Nexon as one of the first companies to popularize the free-to-play game model in the Western world. The company is also known for releasing the world's first graphics-based MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game), The Kingdom of the Winds, in 1995. That said, we're surprised this hadn't happened sooner.

On Facebook, Nexon currently enjoys around 1.7 million monthly players, according to AppData. That's thanks almost entirely to MapleStory Adventures. However, the publisher's Wonder Cruise has yet to officially release on Facebook and its brand spankin' new Zombie Misfits is slowly climbing. Now, if only Nexon would take that extra cash and put Dungeon Fighter in our iPhones already.