Tag: NCSoft

Aion: Truly Free Coming To North America


Last year, NCSoft announced the upcoming free to play transition of Aion…in Europe. In a rather unsurprising move, the developer announced today that North America will be following. Players will have access to all of the content in Aion free of charge, without restrictions on zones, housing, mounts, quests, etc. In addition, NCSoft promises robust cheat detection to ensure that bots won’t take a choke hold over the game.

As a head start, NCSoft will be launching a “Rallying the Troops” event, offering new players a chance to check out the game with no time limit, but a level cap of 40. Returning players will have the ability to have their accounts reactivated for 14 days in the run up to the launch of Truly Free.

Aion Truly Free hits this spring.

(Source: Aion Truly Free)

NCSoft Q4 Finances: Sales/Profit Down


NCSoft has posted their fourth quarter finances. Sales were hit with a 6% loss since the last quarter, with operating profit reportedly taking a 51% hit and net income down 42% since last quarter. NCSoft attributes the decline in sales and profits due to scaled back in-game item sales.

Year over year sales from 2011 compared to 2010 saw a similar drop in revenue by 7%, operating income by 24%, and income by 21%, due to what NCSoft refers to as a weakened user base, and an expansion in research and development. Labor costs increased 9%, marketing increased 25%, and variable expenses grew 7%.

You can see from the chart above that Lineage has continued its dip in sales, which NCSoft attributes to a lack of item sales in-game. Lineage II’s sales opened up somewhat, attributed in the release to “roust sales in Japan.” Aion saw a dip in sales of about 8%, as did Guild Wars (22%), and City of Heroes has shown a 22% increase in sales over Q3.

In terms of regional breakdown, Korea’s stake in NCSoft dived from 69% in Q3 to 60% in Q4. North America rose from 4% to 5% while Europe dipped from 3% to 2%. Japan almost doubled its share, from 12% to 21%, while Taiwan lowered its share from 3% down to 2%. Royalties increased to 10% from 8%.

City of Heroes and Lineage II went free to play recently, with Aion moving free to play in Europe.

(Source: NCSoft Finances)

Guild Wars 2 Opens Door For Non-Cosmetic Cash Shop


By now, I hope that I don’t have to lecture any of you on how important wording is in this industry. When Realtime Worlds said that they had no intention of shutting down All Points Bulletin, they didn’t factor in the results of their ongoing chapter 11 bankruptcy forcing the game to shut down. When Turbine stated that they had no intention of selling equipment with stats at the time, they technically spoke the truth. When Sony answered the free to play question by saying they would not alter existing player’s game, and launching a separate product, they were telling the truth.

Guild Wars Guru has noticed an alteration made to the Guild Wars wiki by user JohnSmith, who is a confirmed Arenanet employee. Previously, the article read:

Yes, micro-transactions will exist. These will be cosmetic additions which will not affect balance or gameplay, similar to the transactions offered by Guild Wars.

Now the article reads:

Yes, micro-transactions will exist. Be assured goods and items bought for cash in GW2 do not offer any advantage over those available in the game through the investment of time.

So the wording changes from only cosmetic items to not being more powerful than existing items. Now, this could simply be referring to Arenanet’s plan to include mission packs and transmutation stones in the cash shop, or the possibility of boosters, or it could open the door for selling equipment that is only as powerful as equipment found in-game. Martin Kerstein of Arenanet weighs in later in the thread.

As usual, everybody just needs to calm down a bit. This change was done to actually make the wording easier to understand – seems like that was not the case.

But the statement in it is still the same: Nothing you will be able to buy in the in-game store will give you an advantage over people who are not buying anything. That is the baseline.

So the outcome is that Arenanet, for now at least, is being vague on a familiar level to companies of the past. For now we’ll simply have to wait for clarification by Arenanet on an exact list of what will be sold in the Guild Wars 2 cash shop.

NCSoft Is Suing TERA Again


It’s been two years since I last talked about the lawsuit between NCSoft and TERA developer Bluehole Studio, so I think a recap is necessary. Many years ago, before Lineage III was known as Lineage Eternal and when NCSoft still had plans to develop the MMO on the Unreal 3 engine, several members of the Lineage III staff left to form their own developer, Bluehole Studio, developer of the MMO The Exiled Realm of Arborea. NCSoft sued Bluehole in Korea in 2006, claiming that the developer had stolen software and hardware, as well as art, to make TERA. Bluehole was convicted in Korea and convictions were upheld (for the most part). A civil complaint was filed in 2010 and overturned by the courts. However, as you are well aware, TERA continued its development and launched in Korea with a western release early this year.

As it turns out, NCSoft isn’t taking this US release sitting down. The publisher launched a lawsuit in New York today, with essentially the same charges of theft of physical and intellectual property.

“Their business plan was simple and audacious: create a competing product using the very work they had done while at NCsoft, launch it themselves to great fanfare and acclaim, and, in the process, deal a crippling blow to their former employer,”

NCSoft seeks an injunction barring TERA from releasing in the United States, as well as enhanced damages for Bluehole’s misconduct. Appeals of the criminal and civil cases in Korea are still ongoing.

Lineage II Compensation Detailed


Lineage II has not been having the best week or so. Between the number of technical difficulties that have cropped up, NCSoft has had enough trouble keeping the servers from buckling and passing out, let alone keeping them running smoothly enough to keep their players happy. Between crashing, lag, and game breaking issues, the community is understandably unhappy.

Luckily, NCSoft has a fix: Free stuff.

As many of you know, technical issues have created gameplay problems in the past week, leading to a less than optimal game experience for affected players. We deeply understand how difficult it can be to play in these conditions and we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience. You, the player community, are very important to us and we want to show you that we care and are working to right any wrongs that have happened.

NCSoft’s compensation package includes a 50% experience rune that lasts five hours, as well as five luxury cocktails, which boost your character’s abilities for 30 minutes each. In addition, NCSoft is running an even from January 25th to February 1st, in which players will enjoy no experience loss on death (unless in Chaotic mode), the reduction of the augmentation removal fee to 1 Adena, and the removal of teleport fees from most gatekeepers.

They are still working to fix some lag issues, warning that emergency maintenance will be taking place over the next few days.

(Source: Lineage II)

NCSoft Outsourcing European Hosting?


You know, I hadn’t really noticed until tonight how small NCSoft’s library has become in the west. With the shuttering of Lineage, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Exteel, and Dungeon Runners, us westerners are left with Aion, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and Lineage 2. Four titles? Granted, we have Blade & Soul (hopefully) coming out at the end of this year, and Wildstar and Lineage Eternal coming at some point in the future.

I can’t help but notice, however, that NCSoft’s personal appearance in Europe has taken a lesser role recently. Lineage II’s European service was recently handed over to Innova for the free to play transition, and when Aion goes free to play early this year, Gameforge is taking over service of that title. So far this is only on NCSoft’s titles in Europe that have transitioned to free to play, with the exception of City of Heroes in which case the two services (US/EU) were merged into one under NCSoft. This leaves Guild Wars.

If I’m lucky, NCSoft will answer my emails about future title publishing.

Games To Watch Out For: NCSoft Edition


If there was ever a game to give Diablo 3 a run for its money, it is Lineage Eternal. Fully revealed late this year, Lineage Eternal brings players back to the days of Lineage with even more chaos and destruction. We were treated to a fourteen minute video of pure gameplay, with cutscenes, massive battles, and showcasing the game’s physics and destruction engine. With the success of Lineage and Lineage II, especially in the Korean markets, Lineage Eternal looks to bring back the days of dealing destruction on a massive scale.

We eagerly await more Lineage Eternal information in the coming year.

Do I need to elaborate? Guild Wars promises to give something everyone can enjoy, from the hardcore player vs player to the MMO fan who simply wants an open world to explore. Arenanet promises to build a dynamic world without subscriptions or heavy grind, world PvP, and the ripple effect. In the case of dynamic events, considerably similar to the public quests of Warhammer Online but on a much larger scale, the actions of players will determine in what direction each phase of the dynamic events move.

Guild Wars has a very strong following of gamers, like it or not, and will prove to be among the biggest releases of 2012.

 

NCSoft, Nexon, Others Relieved Of Identity Attacks…


Over in Korea, players have a lot more to lose when a company leaks their information. Unlike in most other countries, players are often required to register to MMOs with the Korean equivalent of the social security number, and more than once data leaks have resulted in these numbers being readily available for the gaming public. An entire black market has surrounded these games, and at least once per year I am contacted by a group offering entrance into several Korean only betas with accounts registered with stolen identities.

Nexon made big news last month when they announced that the details of thirteen million accounts in Korea were stolen, including the Korean RRN (Resident Registration Number) in an encrypted format. In response, a number of Korean developers have announced plans to stop collecting Korean numbers and instead outsource the collection process to a third party agency. Rather than storing the sensitive data, the agency processes the RRN of the registrant, matches it up to the list, and reports to the developer if the person is an adult, child, nonexistent, or a bot.

Rather than jump on the bandwagon of hate, I think this is a good thing for everyone. Players no longer have to worry (as much) about their identity being stolen, and the developers have a massive load taken off of their backs. Korean MMOs require a player’s identification because the country has strict laws on minors playing certain games and during certain times, and requires companies to enforce such restrictions. As a result, developers have become prime targets for identity theft and security breaches by hackers in search of the delicious gooey center of personal data.

So developers not having access to your RRN can only be a good thing. For those of you in the states, would you trust Turbine or Sony with your social security number? Neither would I.

Aion Free To Play In February…For Europe.


Considering the other titles lately to make the transition, an announcement of free to play from NCSoft or Sony Online Entertainment might be welcoming, but hardly surprising. Over in Europe, NCSoft announced that Aion will be undergoing a change in publisher, to Gameforge, who will be taking care of transitioning the European service, and its community, to a new free to play model. Starting in February 2012, players will be able to enjoy everything* that Aion has to offer for no fee.

In order to combat gold farming, “starter” accounts will be limited to two characters and have limitations from certain chat channels and private trading. Former subscribers will have access to almost everything, sans the increased instance cooldown and limited fortress siege rewards. You can read everything at the F2P matrix. Otherwise, NCsoft continues what has started as a rather generous program for free players, offering everything but the kitchen sink to anyone willing to sign up an account.

This does not affect the North American servers, and there are currently no announced plans to bring such a transition to the states.

(Source: Eurogamer)

(Additional: Free to play matrix)