NCSoft

NCSoft is a South Korean video game developer. The company has produced Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Guild Wars, Aion, Blade & Soul, Exteel and Master X Master.

NCSoft Corporation
엔씨소프트
Public
Traded asKRX: 036570
IndustryVideo games
Founded11 March 1997 (1997-03-11)
HeadquartersPangyo, Seongnam, South Korea[1]

Subsidiary companies

Key people
Taek Jin Kim, CEO
Products
Revenue US$ 1.543 billion (2018)[2]
US$ 553 million (2018)[2]
US$ 379 million (2018)[2]
Total assets US$ 2.647 billion (2018)[2]
Total equity US$ 2.116 billion (2018)[2]
Number of employees
3100 (including 16 global subsidiaries, as of Dec 31, 2015)
Websitehttp://www.ncsoft.com/
T.J. Kim, the CEO of NCSoft

History

NCSoft was founded in March 1997 by T.J. Kim. In September 1998, NCSoft launched its first game Lineage. In April 2001 the company created a US subsidiary under the name NC Interactive (based in Austin, Texas, and would later become NCSoft West) after acquiring Destination Games, headed by Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott.[3] In 2004, NCSoft launched two MMORPGs, Lineage II and City of Heroes.[4]

The company formed NCSoft Europe in July 2004 as a wholly owned subsidiary with its main office in Brighton, England. They brought City of Heroes to several European countries on February 4, 2005, and have since established European service for WildStar and Blade & Soul as well.

On April 26, 2005, NCSoft published Arenanet's first MMO Guild Wars Prophecies as well as Arenanets follow up campaigns Factions and Nightfall and the expansion Eye of the North. NCSoft also published Guild Wars 2 but stopped being the publisher for Guild Wars 2 in 2015 with the release of Heart of Thorns.

On September 10, 2008, NCSoft announced the formation of NCSoft West, a subsidiary which manages NCSoft's other western organizations, and established its headquarters for that subsidiary in Seattle, Washington.[5]

On July 8, 2011, NCSoft started talks with SK Telecom to acquire Ntreev Soft Co., Ltd.[6] The talks were expected to last less than a month, but it took seven for NCSoft to complete the acquisition; purchasing 76% of Ntreev's stock for ₩108 billion (US$96.7 million) on February 15, 2012.[7]

In 2011, NCSoft purchased Hotdog Studio, a mobile game studio based in Seoul that produces phone and smartphone titles such as Dark Shrine.[8]

In June 2012, NCSoft launched Blade & Soul, their first MMORPG since Aion launched in 2006.

In 2012 Nexon acquired a 14.7 percent interest in NCSoft for $688 million.[9] Nexon sold all of its shares of NCSoft in October 2015.

On November 19, 2015, NCSoft West announced the formation of Iron Tiger studios, a developer based out of San Mateo, California focused on adapting Korean-made mobile titles for the West, as well as developing their own mobile games.[10]

Subsidiaries

Current

Former

Customer satisfaction

NCSoft and RightNow Technologies were both recognized in 2006 with the "Beagle Research 'Whiz Kids' Award for Innovative Embedded Customer Service Solution."[11] for NCSoft's integration of RightNow's customer support software.

Controversies

Stolen source code

On April 27, 2007, Seoul Metropolitan Police said that seven former employees of NCSoft are suspected of selling the Lineage III source code to a major Japanese game company.[12] According to NCSoft, the potential damages may exceed US$1 billion.[13]

Worlds.com patent lawsuit

Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin claimed the idea of a "scalable virtual world with thousands of users" is patented by his organization[14] and targeted NCSoft for patent infringement in 2008,[15] in what he says will be the first of many lawsuits against MMO developers.[14] On April 23, 2010, the Worlds.com case settled, but the terms of the settlement were kept confidential. On July 22, 2010, Worlds.com requested the case be reopened.

Richard Garriott termination

Richard Garriott, lead developer of the failed MMORPG game Tabula Rasa, sued NCSoft for US$24 million in damages concerning his termination from the company. Garriott asserted in his suit that he was forced out of the company and was made to sell his 400,000 shares in NCSoft's stock, costing him millions of dollars. In addition, he claimed that the company was guilty of fraud by forging his resignation announcement.[16] On July 30, 2010, a jury in a Texas federal court awarded him US$28 million in damages. NCSoft described Garriott as someone "who keeps finding different ways to turn the company into his personal ATM," and that "Garriott left the company voluntarily to catch his ride to the International Space Station." Citing his questionable work ethic and the failure of his video game project despite an $84.4 million investment, NCSoft pulled the plug on the game after which Garriott announced he would be leaving the company. This came after he boarded a much-publicized news on his boarding of a Russian aircraft, which cost $30 million.[17] Garriott again prevailed on appeal and NCSoft was required to pay an additional US$4 million, bringing the total damages awarded to Garriott to US$32 million.[18]

Closure of Paragon Studios and City of Heroes

On August 31, 2012, NCSoft liquidated Paragon Studios and announced the closure of City of Heroes. Over 21,000 players signed an online petition contesting the shut-down[19] and many used social media to promote their criticisms.

Games

Under development
Title Developer Genre Status
FUSER Harmonix Rhythm Fall 2020
Project TL NCSoft (Team TL) MMORPG TBA
AION 2 NCSoft RPG TBA
Blade & Soul M NCSoft (Team Bloodlust) Action MMORPG TBA
Blade & Soul S NCSoft Strategy RPG TBA
Blade & Soul Console NC Interactive (NCWEST) Action MMORPG TBA
Lineage II M NCSoft (Team L2Live) RPG TBA
Blade & Soul 2 NCSoft (Team Bloodlust) Action MMORPG TBA

Available

PC Online
Title Developer Genre Status
Aion NCSoft (Team Aion) MMORPG Active since September 22, 2009.
Blade & Soul NCSoft (Team Bloodlust) MMORPG Active since June 30, 2012.
Guild Wars ArenaNet MMORPG Active since April 26, 2005.
Guild Wars 2 ArenaNet MMORPG Active since August 28, 2012.
Lineage NCSoft (Team L2Live) MMORPG Active since September 3, 1998.
Lineage II NCSoft MMORPG Active since October 1, 2003.
Love Beat CrazyDiamond Dance/Rhythm Released on Steam January 13, 2016
Jan Ryu Mon NCSoft Japan Mahjong Active.

Mobile
Title Developer Genre Status
Aion: Legions of War NCSoft RPG Active since July 28, 2017
Final Blade NCSoft RPG Active since February 2017
Lineage Red Knight NCSoft RPG Active since December 8, 2016
Lineage M NCSoft MMORPG Active since June 21, 2017
Pangya Mobile NCSoft (Project G Team) Casual Active since December 14, 2017
Pro Baseball H2! Ntreev Soft Sport Active since March 2017
Trickster: Wanna Be a Summoner Ntreev Soft MMORPG Active since April 2015

Closed
Title Developer Genre Date Closed
Auto Assault NetDevil MMORPG 2007-08-31.
Dungeon Runners NCSoft MMORPG 2010-01-01
Dragonica Gravity Casual MMORPG 2011-07-13
Exteel NCSoft (E&G Studios) TPS 2010-09-01
Point Blank Zepetto FPS 2011-07-13
Tabula Rasa Destination Games MMORPG 2009-02-28
City of Heroes Paragon Studios MMORPG 2012-11-30
Trickster Ntreev Soft MMORPG 2013-02-27
Master X Master NCSoft (Studio MXM) MOBA 2018-01-31
WildStar NCSoft (Carbine) MMORPG 2018-11-30

Titles not available in English
Title Developer Genre Status
Murim Jekook Longtu Network Technology Strategy Korean release only.
Punch Monster Next Play MMORPG Korean release only.
PangYa Ntreev Soft Sport Casual Thailand release only.

In addition, NCSoft is also the developer and maintainer of a variety of web-based board games in Asian markets.

References
  1. "NCsoft's Global Network". NCsoft. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  2. "4Q 2018 earnings release". ncsoft.com. Retrieved 2019-12-18.
  3. "NCSoft". kr.ncsoft.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  4. "Seven years of City of Heroes statistics". eurogamer.net. 2011-04-28. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  5. "엔씨소프트의 역사" [History of NCsoft]. kr.ncsoft.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  6. Weber, Rachel (July 8, 2011). "NCSoft in talks to acquire Ntreev Software". Gamesindustry International. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
  7. Caoili, Eric (February 17, 2012). "League of Legends and NCsoft's Ntreev acquisition, this week in Korean news". Gamasutra. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
  8. Caoili, Eric (July 27, 2011). "NCSoft Purchases Seoul-Based Mobile Dev Hotdog Studio". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  9. Takahashi, Dean. "Korean game togetherness: Nexon acquires 14.7 percent of NCsoft for $688M". VentureBeat.
  10. "About Us". us.ncsoft.com. Retrieved 2017-05-30.
  11. "RightNow and NCsoft Win - January 19 2006 - RightNow - RightNow". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011.
  12. "Former NCSoft Employees Suspected of Stealing Lineage III Code". WIRED. 30 April 2007.
  13. "Chosun Ilbo article". April 26, 2007. Archived from the original on September 18, 2008.
  14. "Worlds.com CEO: We're 'Absolutely' Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft". Business Insider.
  15. "NCsoft Faces Patent Infringement Suit". WIRED. 29 December 2008.
  16. massively.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-blasts-ncsoft-with-24-million-lawsuit/
  17. Kim, Tong-hyung (July 30, 2010). "Garriott wins $28 mil. in NCsoft lawsuit".
  18. "Garriott wins appeal in NCsoft case". RICHARD GARRIOTT v. NCSoft CORPORATION. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  19. "Save CoH movement invites NCsoft execs to play, petition passes 20,000 signatures". joystiq.com. September 27, 2012. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
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