Tag: NCSoft

NCSoft Selling Off NC Interactive


ncsoft

Things are afoot over at NCSoft. According to Reuters today, the Korean publisher has announced that it will be selling off NC Interactive Inc, its online gaming branch. Is NCSoft going away in the west? Absolutely not. A follow up article on Reuters states that NCSoft has announced a wholly owned subsidiary that will handle business in the United States and Europe. The transaction will be taken care of on December 24th, to the cost of $50 million KRW. It appears that this is a simple business move by NCSoft to avoid paying some taxes in the US and Europe. Note I said avoid, not evade. One is legal, the other is not.

Otherwise, nothing major is set to come out of this, apart from a little rebranding. It occurs often in business, and as I pointed out, it is a tax trick.

NCSoft Announces Layoffs Hitting Seattle Branch


Layoffs right before Christmas? That is cold, NCSoft. After an anonymous source tipped off PC Gamer, the news has come forward that the Seattle offices of NCSoft are undergoing realignment, meaning several positions are no longer in existence. NCSoft’s Public Relations Manager Lincoln Davis said to PC Gamer:

“NCsoft is realigning internal publishing resources to better suit the needs of our game development studios. As a result of the realignment, several employees and contract positions were affected. This was a very tough decision to make and wish the best for all NCsoft employees in their next ventures.”

Reportedly there has been no impact on development at ArenaNet (Guild Wars) or Carbine Studios (Wildstar), or for that matter just how many were laid off.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Save City of Heroes Reaches Out To Disney


City of Heroes shuts down in two days from the time of this writing. Despite the astounding campaign from the City of Heroes community, which gained the support of celebrities including Neil Gaiman, Mercedes Lackey, and John C. Wright among others, NCSoft stands by their earlier statement that all attempts at selling the IP were unsuccessful. In their continuing efforts, the Save City of Heroes campaign delivered a package to Disney HQ, filled with information about City of Heroes, the campaign, and explaining why Disney should add the title to their ever growing portfolio. The information was written by NY Times Best Selling Author Mercedes Lackey along with several others, who wrote:

“We believe that acquiring City of Heroes will provide Disney Interactive with the logical extension of their games for kids and teens, offering a game that literally the whole family can play.”

Will Disney step up and rescue City of Heroes? That will need to be seen.

(Source: Press Release)

Lineage II: Vision For The Future


It’s been nine years since Lineage II launched (In Korea), and NCSoft continues to update the game on a regular basis. The publisher just released this video, an eleven minute trailer for what the game might become one day. If you haven’t played Lineage II in a while, or at all, the video doesn’t really offer much exposition as to what the future holds. Guys fight each other, people die and get stabbed in the face (not necessarily in that order), and some dialogue that makes me think NCSoft needs to brush up on their zingers.

I don’t know about you but I’m still waiting on Lineage Eternal news.

NCSoft 3rd Quarter Finances: Significant Growth From New Products


The folks at Arenanet and Team Bloodlust must be breaking open the champagne today, as NCSoft’s financial statements for the third quarter of 2012 reveal that Guild Wars 2 and Blade & Soul aren’t just bringing home the bacon, they are weaving it and frying it to perfection. Guild Wars 2 launched strong in the United States and Europe, while Blade & Soul ripped up the carpeting in Korea. Both games contributed to a massive 50% year over year gain in profits for NCSoft, pulling the developer up from its operating loss from last quarter that saw heavy corporate restructuring and the cancellation of City of Heroes. Both titles should receive a bump in revenue, as Guild Wars 2’s sales do not include Asia, and Blade & Soul has not launched in the West.

On the other hand, every rose has its thorn. As you have likely noticed, both Guild Wars and City of Heroes are no longer listed. Aion continued its free fall in sales while Lineage II continues its considerably slower downturn. The bump that Lineage received in the second quarter is clearly over and done with, as sales fell to below the fourth quarter sales trough in 2011.

Brilliant! Aion Performs Weekly Sweep of Block List


Don’t you get tired of blocking people who are harassing you, only to later wonder if it is safe to remove them from your list? What about gold farmer accounts, how can you be sure that they haven’t been banned? They could be waiting just around the corner to surprise you with cheap gold at fast delivery speeds and customer satisfaction guaranteed. And no one needs that after a long day at the Pottery Barn picking out new bed sheets. Luckily, NCSoft has just the idea: Periodically sweeping banned accounts from everyone’s ignore list.

Starting with tomorrow’s maintenance, every week we will be clearing players’ block lists of permanently banned accounts! This means that banned accounts–including RMT spammers!–will no longer take up space in your block list! We will continue to perform this function every week.

(Source: NCSoft)

Save COH Plays For Charity


The community of City of Heroes weren’t just virtual superheroes this weekend. A team of forty nine battle ready players took to the streets this weekend to fight crime (and cause it) in a 24 hour marathon for the name of freedom, honor, and charity. The marathon raised over $8,500 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, a facility that treats children regardless of their family’s ability to pay.

One participant, DrakeGrimm, had the following to say:

“It is events like this that make me honored to stand up and be a part of this community. We are heroes, and this is what we do.”

At the end of the marathon, players grouped together outside City Hall in Paragon City to raise their torches in support of the game and its community. City of Heroes is scheduled to shut down on November 30th, although the community has still not given up hope of saving the MMO. You can find the SaveCOH campaign here: http://www.savecoh.com/

(Source: Press Release)

NCSoft Opens Account Migration


As announced earlier this year, NCSoft has rolled out account migration for players of Aion and Lineage II, beginning today. The move will bring both games under one account, consolidating how the player handles their login, NCoin, and security. As mentioned in the release:

NC Accounts allow players to manage their Aion and L2 game accounts with a single email, which you will be able to change for added security–no more static account name! NC Accounts also share a wallet for NCoin, meaning that any NCoin you purchase can be used between your Aion and L2 accounts!

The migration is currently voluntary, but only temporarily. Following a grace period, users will be required to migrate their Aion and Lineage II accounts to NCsoft accounts in order to log in at all. Any unapplied items will not transfer over, so NCSoft recommends you apply them before making the move.

A small update, but an important one nonetheless.

(Source: NCSoft press release)

NCSoft Ignored Potential Buyers, Says Report


One of the luxuries of being a reporter is that I can always fall back on the ability to say “well it is a press release, so we have to give the benefit of the doubt.” The same way in which we automatically trust what comes out of a developer’s financial statements on the grounds that just because ENRON lied, doesn’t make all companies suspicious. But with NCSoft, even a simple notice on the Main page is suspect, thanks to the precedent set just a couple years back with the forging of Richard Garriot’s resignation. Sorry, fool me once shame on you.

So when NCSoft published the notice that all options had been exhausted when selling City of Heroes, the game’s fans were understandably suspicious. In a report over at Addicting Info, it appears that NCSoft may have been toying with what constitutes “all options.”

Within short order, two different investment groups (speaking while protected by anonymity) claimed that NCSoft had refused to even discuss a sale, and ignored any and all offers. A company which engages in this kind of behavior is not a good steward of its shareholders’ investment.

Only Addicting Info knows who these developers are, but if NCSoft did ignore even the idea of a sale, this news is just fuel on the growing fire that is NCSoft’s community relations following the surprise closure announcement. For now, however, the SaveCOH movement is not giving up hope.

(Source: Addicting Info)

SaveCOH Responds to NCSoft


Last week NCSoft published a press release to try and quiet the growing masses of angry City of Heroes players. Breaking their previous silence, NCSoft took to the stage to explain that attempts were made to sell the City of Heroes game, but we’re unsuccessful. And as you can see by the comments on our coverage alone, the community is having difficulty swallowing what NCSoft is trying to feed them.

In a press release by SaveCOH, the community presents several questions that they would like answered by NCSoft, including just what counts as “exhaustive efforts” in selling the game, and why potential buyers are reporting no response to their offers.

What attempts were made to sell the IP address, and how they were exhausted.
• Why a number of potential investors who came forward to try and buy the rights, did not receive a response of any kind from NC Soft.
• How NC exhausted all the option, given that the game is not due for closure until November 30, and the fact that there have only been only 32 business days since the announcement of the ‘sunset’ of the game.
• Why NC Soft did not consider combining servers, putting the game in maintenance mode and keeping it running without further developments or updates, or allowing people to create their own, private servers.
• They are calling on campaigners are also calling on NC Soft to publically name a price that they would be willing to accept for either Paragon Studios, or City of Heroes itself.
• And they want to know why a game that was running ‘well in the black’ and had seen an increase in players in the months leading up to the announcement is being closed down, while games such as Guild Wars which are running at a loss, are being kept alive.
• And why NC Soft failed to respond to an invitation from players to play the game with them, or a letter from best-selling author Mercedes Lackey to endorse NC Soft products, free of charge, for a period of five to ten years, for free, if they would be willing to work with players to keep the servers online.

Hopefully we will have more details in the near future. You can find the SaveCOH movement at http://www.cohtitan.com.

(Source: Press Release)