NCSoft – Page 9 – MMO Fallout

How Blade & Soul Distributes The Wealth

Drops have always been a divisive issue when it comes to raids, particularly when you’re dealing with players using the roll system to hoard items that they don’t need and probably can’t sell, but want anyway because of greed. In the early days, this was dealt with through a need/greed system, but players would simply roll need on everything. To combat this, games like Neverwinter restrict the need button to classes that can actually use said item.

In Blade & Soul, as one Reddit user points out, party leaders can set the loot rotation to a bidding system. Players bid on drops above a certain value with the winner paying out for the item. To ensure that no one comes out empty handed, the winning player’s bid is distributed among the other players. This way, the more you lose bids, the more money you have to win them in the future or just outright buy the equipment.

(Source: Reddit)

Get Your Lineage II Transfers In Before December 16th

NCSoft has posted a notice on the Lineage II website that anyone wishing to transfer their character this month should do so before December 16th, otherwise they will have to wait until next year.

With the upcoming holiday, the last server transfers of 2015 will be processed during the December 16th maintenance. Purchasing and queuing for server transfers will not be available after this date and any server transfers that fail during the next maintenance will be processed next year.

Missing the deadline will mean having to wait until transfers begin again on January 6th.

(Source: Lineage II)

NCSoft Q3 2015 Drops Across The Board

NCSoft has released their third quarter financial reports and the results are pretty much negative across the board. Sales were down 8% under the same time last year, while profits fell nearly forty percent and net income dropped sixty percent across the same period. NCSoft has pointed to a drop in in-game promotional items for Lineage 1 and Aion as the culprit behind a majority of the drop in sales in Korea, although every game in their library saw a loss in sales over the second quarter.

The only game that seemed to be doing better in the third quarter is Blade & Soul, whose continued success in China brought in increased royalties. Blade & Soul’s sales in China are not reflected in the game’s bar on the chart above. The news also does not take into account the shift of Wildstar to free to play and the launch of Guild Wars 2’s expansion Heart of Thorns. Wildstar’s earnings for the third quarter dropped to $1.5 million, while Lineage 1 still makes up just under half of the total game sales.

(Source: NCSoft)

Guild Wars 2 Is Now Free To Play

With Heart of Thorns right around the corner, Arenanet has announced a major change in the Guild Wars 2 business model. Starting yesterday (the 29th), anyone can now access the core game for no down payment. In the announcement, Arenanet discusses the move being partially in response to other games where the heavy list of expansions made getting into the game as a new player confusing.

We’ve seen examples in the industry where that kind of thing has gotten out of control. It doesn’t seem right, and we want to do better. As we get ready to ship our first expansion forGuild Wars 2, we want to ensure that we keep the business model friendly and simple. So let’s be clear that when we say Guild Wars 2 is buy-to-play, we’re only asking you to buy one thing: the current release, Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

What does “access the core game” mean? Well in this context, free players are limited in character and bag slots, cannot use map chat, and can only buy/sell common goods on the market. They also cannot mail items/gold, trade gold for gems, or access guild vaults. Free accounts are also limited from leaving the starting zone until level 10, from using the LFG tool until 30, and to level 60 until they can compete in world v world, to prevent players from disrupting the game.

Arenanet also promises that this change will not usher in heavy microtransaction marketing.

(Source: Guild Wars 2)

Blade & Soul Is Coming: Founder’s Packs Ready For Purchase

Blade & Soul’s western release is right around the corner, we know this to be true because NCSoft has officially announced that founder’s packs are available for purchase. Made ready to pickup in the form of $24, $75, and $125 packages, anyone who grabs a founder’s pack will have access to all closed betas later this fall, not to mention three days early access, scaling character titles, and increasing premium points. Higher tier packages give access to premium membership, name reservations, booster packs, NCoins, and more.

The good news is that should you have second thoughts about your pre-order, you can always get a refund anytime before the character name reservation becomes available. You’ll also need to make use of this function if you decide to upgrade to a higher tier, because right now that is impossible and may or may not be implemented at some point in the future.

Premium points increase your membership tier along the lines of a loyalty program, increasing the benefits of membership with each cash shop purchase.

(Source: NCSoft)

NCSoft Announces F2P Details For Blade & Soul

NCSoft has announced that Blade & Soul will launch in North America and Europe under the publisher’s free to play system. When the game goes into closed beta this fall, players will be able to access all content without spending a dime.

NCoin, the currency used in other NCSoft titles, will be available to purchase convenience items, cosmetics, and quality of life improvements. Costumes, potions, and character/inventory slots will be available for purchase with real money. An optional membership subscription will provide experience and currency drop boosts.

(Source: NCSoft Press Release)

Blade & Soul Hits Western Shores This Winter

Put down your torches and extinguish your pitchforks, because Blade & Soul is joining Fievel and going west. The long awaited MMO from NCSoft will go into closed beta this fall with a launch sometime during the winter. Players will be able to get their hands on six classes, four races, and a level cap of 45 at launch to go through the game’s first three acts (the Korean version is up to act 6).

Blade & Soul has been a bit of a mystery for the past few years, with NCSoft touting the game’s success and continued growth in its launch territories while refusing to give a hint on westward expansion. Today’s news should ease those pained hearts.

Gamers will be able to get their hands on Blade & Soul when it launches as a free to play game this winter.

(Source: MMORPG.com)

[Column] NCSoft, Misconceptions And Frequently Asked

The kind of activity I’m seeing among the Wildstar community is pretty similar to those of other MMOs when they were either in the process of being shut down, or at heavily speculated risk of being shut down. So none of what I’m about to discuss is of any surprise to me, and I don’t want people thinking that I’m just singling out the Wildstar community for behaving in such a manner. Thank you.

First of all, you can read my analysis of NCSoft’s first quarter report at MMORPG.com. I’m no trained expert in finance, but I’ve been doing these quarterly reports for five years, and in the months that I’m not regurgitating income and revenues, I’m doing research and chatting with real investment bankers. So I have at least a good grasp on what I’m talking about and the charts the present are all mine, so you know I’ve actually read them.

The unfortunate side effect of this being a somewhat complicated topic is that articles like this usually end up with a lot of gotcha questions from fans and “haters” alike, statements you know are wrong but can’t really refute with the proper level of confidence.

I decided to compile a few of the most common things I see concerning quarterly reports, particularly for this one.

The graph shows box sales, not total revenue.

Incorrect. The figure reported by NCSoft is total revenue per game, from box sales to subscriptions and cash shop purchases. No, this isn’t directly stated on the quarterly report sheet, but it is discussed in more detail over the conference call. Also, just consider this from a logical point of view. There are games on this list that don’t exist in a boxed form anymore, in any region. Sales for titles like Aion and Lineage II would be zilch if the figure only counted box sales.

But my guild is growing, the game must be growing too!

A nice sentiment, but anecdotal and ultimately meaningless, not to mention demonstrably false given we know for a fact that Wildstar’s sales are dropping. Also consider how small the game’s population would need to be in order for one guild’s numbers to be indicative of the overall population.

Who cares what the revenue is as long as the game is profitable?

You should, at least fans of the game should. While some developers might be happy with just profitable, it doesn’t take an expert to know that NCSoft is not that kind of developer. If NCSoft was happy with a game being somewhat profitable, we’d still be playing City of Heroes.

Your sources are unaudited and therefore inaccurate.

Half true. The figures provided are not audited, meaning they are in their form as NCSoft has submitted them. While it is possible that a mistake was made and the numbers are wrong, you would need some hard evidence to prove why the numbers should be doubted.

NCSoft Shuts Down Project HON

NCSoft Korea has shut down development of Project HON, allegedly due to a perceived lack of interest in giant mech games in the local market. Project HON is being shelved to allow NCSoft to focus on its other titles, including the upcoming launch of Lineage Eternal and further growth of Blade & Soul in foreign markets.

Project HON came up earlier this year when three employees were fired for embezzling funds.

(Source: Steparu)

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)

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