Not that this will prevent any hate-mail, but I’ve included a nice chart on NCSoft’s sales for reference. Falling Out releases a new edition every Monday.
Tag: NCSoft
Can We Stop Asking If TERA Will Be Shut Down Now?
Back when I was covering the TERA beta, I received a lot of messages from players who wanted to buy the game, but were afraid to because of the lawsuit between En Masse Entertainment. People were afraid that NCSoft had a chance of winning the lawsuit, and would have the game shut down in North America (and possibly Europe) as a result. Well, according to a press release by EME, the lawsuit has been settled and TERA will not be shutting down. As part of the settlement, En Masse maintains its innocence and has stated that the company will maintain its focus on TERA in the coming future.
“En Masse Entertainment confirms it has settled with NCsoft over the TERA-related lawsuit in the US. In doing so, En Masse Entertainment maintains its innocence and looks forward to refocusing the company’s full attention to TERA, its fans, and its future.”
As for the full details of the settlement, you can probably expect to see those somewhere in the realm of never.
(Source: Press release)
NCSoft Q2 2012: Profits Down, Revenue Up
NCSoft has released its finances for the second quarter of 2012, and considering that the major MMO news sites suddenly care enough to report on it, I can only assume that there is some drama to be had. Compared to last quarter, revenues are up thanks to solid Lineage sales and royalties, however NCSoft is in the red on operating profit and net income due to what the company refers to as “one-off labor costs.” Here are the bullet points of important details to explain why NCSoft’s profits sunk so low:
- Lineage sales were strong Korea, however Aion sales tanked due to “scaled back in-game item sales.”
- Labor costs surged 27% this past quarter due to severance-pay.
- Royalty expenses increased 35%
- Marketing expenses were up 112% over last quarter due to Blade & Soul
- D&A increased 28%
- NCSoft’s acquisition of Ntreev also ended up being a major cost.
While sales in Korea and Japan held strong, sales in North America continued a slight decline over last quarter. Europe has been hit the hardest, with sales decreasing to virtually nothing (less than 1% of sales for the quarter).
The launch of Guild Wars 2 is expected to make up for any losses incurred this quarter.
NCSoft Master Accounts To Be Merged In The Future
If your NCSoft account was created after July 12, 2012, you can ignore this article. Managing your NCSoft account is about to become slightly easier. In a few months, NCSoft will require all Aion and Lineage II players to migrate their NCSoft Master Accounts over to the new NC Account system. The benefit of this upgrade is that both Lineage II and Aion will pull from the same NCoin pool, meaning players of both titles will not have to fund both games respectively.
Once the account is migrated, players will log in with their email address. There are a few limitations, including that players can only have one of each account from Aion and Lineage II, for instance a player with multiple Aion accounts cannot merge them into one NC Account. Furthermore, unused serial codes will not transfer over to the new system, so any unused codes tagged to your account should be used before the account is migrated.
As of this publishing, migrating existing accounts is not currently available.
(Source: NCSoft)
50,000 Guild Wars 2 Beta Keys From Curse.com
Guild Wars 2 releases at the end of next month, meaning the opportunities for beta testing are winding down. Luckily, Curse.com has your back. Both general members and premium subscribers will be able to grab one of over 50,000 beta keys to the upcoming weekend event. The beta event lasts from July 20th to the 22nd, and the keys are being doled out on a first come, first serve basis. Ten thousand are Curse.com premium subscriber only, while the rest require just a general Curse.com account.
Make sure you read the rules clearly, especially for European users. The giveaway may not be applicable in your country.
NCSoft Holding Interviews in Providence
NCSoft just posted a notice that they will be holding interviews on May 31st from 9am to 7pm at Providence Biltmore. All applicants are welcome, especially 38 Studios (and presumably Big Huge Games) ex-employees.
NCSoft Q1 2012: Aion/Lineage Up, Lineage 2 Down
NCSoft has published their first quarter finances, and as always there is good news and bad news.
- Quarterly sales were up, although profits were down nearly 20% due to increased labor cost, royalty expenses, and other factors.
- Korea grew due with sound in-game item sales, while Japan dropped.
- Aion and Lineage performed strongly.
- Lineage 2 saw a notable loss in sales due to a “weakened user base,” according to the report.
- City of Heroes also dropped in sales, while Guild Wars saw an increase.
The data above is sourced from the official NCSoft earnings releases and is presented in a more digestible form.
Korean Supreme Court Finds Bluehole Innocent, Three Employees Guilty
Back when the internet was powered by Steam and everything cost a nickel NCSoft sued Bluehole Studios, a company made up of ex-Lineage III developers. There has been a bit of confusion with convictions being upheld while others were later appealed and overturned, and I hadn’t noticed that the case has made its way to the South Korean Supreme Court, who yesterday came out with their ruling.
Bluehole Studios has been found innocent of any charges of wrongdoing. However, three employees were convicted of leaking trade secrets and must both pay two billion won in restitution ($1.7 million USD, approximately). The story might be over for now for Bluehole Studios, but the three employees mentioned now face criminal charges for which sentencing will take place at a later date.
In January, NCSoft launched a lawsuit in the United States to keep TERA from releasing, and from the outside looking in this ruling does not bode well for a guilty verdict. While the case in Korea has successfully taken down those responsible for the theft, NCSoft has failed in their other objective: Shutting down TERA.
So those of you on the bench in regard to preordering TERA can probably breath a sigh of relief and grab those credit cards. TERA launches in just a few weeks.
(Source)
NCSoft Reactivating Aion Accounts
Aion free to play technically doesn’t launch until next week, but NCSoft has something all players can get into, past, present, and prospective. Starting today, inactive accounts that are in good standing will be reactivated and able to log on. When Aion Truly Free goes live, a new server Kahrun will be launched. While you cannot play on the server until it goes live, starting today players will be able to create characters and reserve names on the server.
To compensate current players with additional time on their accounts, NCSoft is crediting 40 NCcoins per day remaining on the account (or around 1200 coins for each month you had remaining). The credit may take several days to process, however.
(Source: Aion news)
City of Heroes Dropping Localization In France/Germany
Community Manager Andy Belford over at Paragon Studios would like to thank you all for the tremendous support of the European communities ever since City of Heroes went live, and subsequently free. That is, except for the French and German communities who have not “seen rapid growth” in the past. As a result, Paragon Studios has announced that starting immediately, City of Heroes will begin phasing out support for French and German communities.
Official support for the French and German clients will end when Issue 23 is released, and players will be required to use the English language version. The French and German servers (Vigilance and Zukunft) will not be closed down, however the content will be changed to English. In addition, all support tickets will still be answered in French or German.
(Source: City of Heroes website)
MMO Fallout 