Established as Playmore Corporation on August 1, 2001, it was originally an affiliate of the former SNK. Initially, it was a legal company specializing in copyright management services, and it would be incorrect to refer to the former SNK as its predecessor company. On October 30, of the same year, the company won the company's intellectual property rights in a bid made during the bankruptcy of the former SNK.

As a part of their efforts to reestablish their presence in the gaming market, Playmore purchased Brezzasoft and renamed it SNK NeoGeo Corp, giving the company an internal game development team. A Japanese commercial games distributor, Sun Amusement, was also purchased in order to provide the company with an arcade distribution outlet in Japan. International offices were established in South Korea, Hong Kong, and the United States under the SNK NeoGeo name for commercial, and later, consumer gaming distribution. In July 2003, with the permission of Eikichi Kawasaki, the founder of the former SNK company, the company changed its name to SNK Playmore Corporation.