NCSoft – Page 8 – MMO Fallout

Wildstar 17 Hour Extended Maintenance And Something Extra

Wildstar will be undergoing a 17 hour maintenance today (5/13), during which time game authorization, account management, forums, and customer support will be unavailable. The game will still be available, however authorization will be offline.

Thank you for your patience during this downtime and we’re very sorry for the inconvenience. We will work very hard to bring the game up as soon as possible. There may be even a little something extra to follow!

What extra something? Stay tuned to find out. Maintenance begins in one hour from this publishing (3am EST).

(Source: Wildstar)

Discussing Business Models Now Banned on Wildstar Subreddit

With NCSoft’s latest quarterly report coming up, speculation is rising once again on the possibility of Wildstar either going free to play or buy to play. The Wildstar subreddit, which we should point out is run by fans and not NCSoft, is getting ahead of the game by banning any discussion of f2p/b2p until hard evidence or an official announcement can be procured.

Unless a Carbine Employee, or Moderator here announces any business model changes to WildStar, there is no longer a reason to continue trying to post such discussions, as they are creating a lot of unrest in the community.

NCSoft’s next quarterly release should be coming out this week, hopefully alongside some news on Wildstar’s future. Wildstar’s earnings in the last quarter of 2014 were about $5 million, a sharp 65% drop quarter over quarter.

(Source: Reddit)

Wildstar Bundles “Mystery Box” With New Copies

Carbine Studios is running a promotion with Wildstar: Buy a copy of the game and receive a “mystery box” code, which will grant one of three items: A mount (pictured above), a hoverboard, and a costume set, plus a title for collecting all three.

For a limited time, when you buy a standard-edition copy of WildStar in the physical box, you also get one of these three awesome items. Got duplicate items? No problem! You can trade them with your friends, sell them on the auction house, or just keep them to yourself.

Unfortunately for current players, the codes are only given if you redeem the game after April 15th, and only the standard edition boxed copy (digital codes and steel box deluxe is not included). The pets can then be traded on the auction house, gifted to others, or applied as a character-bound item.

(Source: Wildstar)

Layoffs Hit NCSoft Customer Support

NCSoft today confirmed to Polygon that it is moving its customer support operations to a third party, during which approximately 16 jobs will be made redundant. The layoffs affect internal customer support staff at the NCWest offices in Austin, Texas, and are the final phase of restructuring that began last October.

According to Polygon’s source, the layoffs “amounted to the office’s entire customer support team.” NCSoft has denied that the changes will have any impact on former, current, or future customers.

(Source: Polygon)

NCSoft Employees Caught Embezzling Development Funds

MMO Culture is reporting that three staff members have been fired after it was discovered that they were embezzling funds from Project HON, with the possibility that the police may become involved. It was apparently discovered that a third party company had been hired to handle graphics development with ties to the three employees.

This is not the first time NCSoft employees have been accused of criminal actions. Back in 2012, a Korean court convicted three employees of Bluehole Studios for leaking trade secrets about Lineage III, ordering the trio to pay a fine of two billion won.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Grab Guild Wars 2 On Sale This Weekend

If you still haven’t gotten around to picking up Guild Wars 2, now is the time to do so. The game is on sale for 75% off beginning today, March 6th, until the sale ends on March 8th. The sale applies only to the Digital Heroic Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition.

In other Guild Wars 2 news, a closed beta for Heart of Thorns will be up after PAX East. You can sign up for the beta on the Guild Wars 2 website.

(Source: Guild Wars 2)

Blade & Soul Now F2P In Japan

MMO Culture is reporting that Blade & Soul has officially gone free to play in Japan. Players are able to play for free with an optional VIP membership, with details for that coming later this month.

The article notes that players in Korea are upset at NCSoft now that Korea is apparently the last remaining pay-to-play region for Blade & Soul

(Source: MMO Culture)

Nexon Engaging Hostile Takeover Of NCSoft

The relationship between Nexon and NCSoft has reportedly turned sour as the former has decided to take on a management role in the latter. Over two years ago Nexon purchased a majority stake in NCSoft, announcing at the time that it was purely for “investment” purposes. Relations between the two companies apparently soured when NCSoft appointed CEO Kim Taek-jin’s wife, Yoon Song-yee, to the role of President without notifying Nexon.

CEO Kim Taek-jin has vocally announced his displeasure with Nexon’s decision, stating:

“Nexon’s latest decision will damage the values of the NCSoft shareholders and weaken the competitiveness of the entire Korean game industry due to the (companies’) differing management philosophies and business models,”

NCSoft and Nexon have had a hard time getting along since the shareholder buyout, as differences in business perspective and management resulted in the failure of their first joint project: Mabinogi 2.

(Source: Korea Herald)

Guild Wars 2 Double Exp Weekend

This weekend looks to be a big one for Guild Wars 2, and ArenaNet is kicking off with a double experience weekend and the biggest sale the game has seen yet. New players will be able to pick up Guild Wars 2 for $9.99, the cheapest the game has been in some time, while all players will be able to take advantage of double experience all weekend in-game.

On Saturday, ArenaNet will be broadcasting a special presentation titled “Beyond the Point of No Return,” featuring studio president Mike O’Brien and game director Colin Johanson. ArenaNet is expected to announce something large coming to Guild Wars 2.

(Source: NCSoft Press Release)

Reminder: Daewoo Is Not An Official Source

Daewoo Securities, a financial investment group in Korea, have released an earnings forecast for NCSoft that is throwing some of the community into a ruckus. The whole thing stems from the prediction that in Q3 2015, Guild Wars 2 will see a massive rise in sales thanks to an upcoming expansion launch.

Here’s what you should know about the forecast: Daewoo is not an official source for any of NCSoft’s products. They are a third party investment firm that makes predictions based off of speculation and assumptions.

As of this publishing, NCSoft has not announced an expansion to Guild Wars 2, let alone one launching in 2015. For context, this is Daewoo’s full prediction regarding Guild Wars 2:

Also, in 2015, NCsoft is expected to roll out an expansion pack for Guild Wars 2, which has sold more than 3mn copies since its release in 2012 in the US and Europe. We assumed in our 2015 earnings estimates Guild Wars 2 expansion pack sales of around 2mn copies (US$50 per copy), and note that the expansion packs for Guild Wars 1 have sold almost as much as the original game in the year of their release.

A snippet of Daewoo’s disclaimer:

Information and opinions contained herein have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and in good faith, but such information has not been independently verified and Daewoo makes no guarantee, representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information and opinions contained herein or of any translation into English from the Korean language.

To inject some positivity into this, the rest of Daewoo’s predictions seem pretty solid. The firm predicts high sales from NCSoft’s numerous mobile games being released this year based off of trends from Activision Blizzard, Netease, Changyou, and Electronic Arts.

Arenanet will be hosting a panel at PAX South to discuss the future of Guild Wars 2 later this month.

(Source: Source)

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