NCsoft
| NCsoft Corporation ㈜ 엔씨 소프트
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | March 11, 1997 |
| Seat |
 Seongnam City , Gyeonggi-do Province
|
| management | Kim T.-j. ( CEO ) |
| Number of employees | 4,108 (2009) |
| Website | ncsoft.com |
NCsoft is a South Korean company that specializes in the development and distribution of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
history
NCsoft was founded on March 11, 1997 by Kim Tack-jin , who is still the company's chief executive officer ( CEO ). Kim Tack-jin was previously known for developing the professional word processing program Hangul (named after the Korean alphabet Hangeul ). One of the company's first products was a program called the NC HTML Editor .
In 2000 NCsoft was first listed on the Korean Stock Exchange. First in the KOSDAQ technology index and since May 22, 2003 in the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE). In 2007 the company had a turnover of 155 million euros and an after-tax profit of 21 million euros. In 2008, the company and its subsidiaries had over 2,600 employees.
In September 1998, the company's first game called Lineage was released . The game was developed by Jake Song and is particularly popular in South Korea, but can also be played in Chinese , Japanese, and English . Lineage was the most successful MMORPG at times with 4 million users until the game World of Warcraft broke this record with over 11 million players.
The economic success of Lineage enabled NCsoft to expand into other countries. The collaboration with Richard Garriott , who with Ultima Online himself is one of the pioneers of the MMORPG genre, developed particularly successfully from 2001 onwards . His newly founded company provided logistical support with the establishment of NCsoft North America in Austin , Texas and the localization of Lineage for the American market. His brother Robert Garriott , co-founder of Destination Games, was NCsoft North America’s CEO until early 2008. The game Tabula Rasa was developed by Richard Garriott and Destination Games on behalf of NCsoft. It is the first independently developed game in this section of the company and was released on November 2, 2007.
Before Tabula Rasa was discontinued in November 2008, there was a disagreement between Garriott and NCsoft. A message allegedly from Richard Garriott announced in November 2008 that Garriott wanted to leave NCsoft, but this denied. This was followed by a lawsuit against NCsoft for a sum of $ 24 million , which Garriott won in July 2010 and was awarded $ 28 million.
In June 2004, game developer Jon Van Caneghem ( Might and Magic ) became executive producer at NCsoft North America, where he worked on an unnamed online game (presumably Tabula Rasa ). However, in the same year, Van Caneghem and NCsoft tacitly separated again.
The purchase of ArenaNet in Bellevue , Washington , USA in 2002 also turned out to be a stroke of luck . This published the game Guild Wars on April 28, 2005 , which has meanwhile been sold over 6 million times. The game Guild Wars: Factions followed on April 28, 2006 and Guild Wars: Nightfall on October 27 of the same year . Arena.Net last released the expansion Guild Wars: Eye of the North on August 31, 2007 . On August 28, 2012, Guild Wars 2 was released.
In 2004 NCsoft also expanded to Europe and founded the subsidiary NC Europe in Brighton , England. Support for the German-speaking area also takes place from there.
In 2003, NCsoft's second game, Lineage II , was released in South Korea , and in North America the following year . According to NCsoft, the game sold 17 million copies (as of December 2007), breaking the World Of Warcraft record . Thus the title of the "biggest MMORPG" is back in the house of NCsoft. The great success of this game took place almost exclusively in Asia. In 2007 the game Dungeon Runners was released , which is free to download and play, but a monthly fee is charged for advanced features and in-game content.
In 2006, the online tennis game Smash Star was released , followed by the multiplayer online game Exteel in December 2007 and Aion: The Tower of Eternity on November 25, 2008 in Korea and on September 25, 2009 in Europe. The game Blade and Soul , which will be released in 2012, is under development.
In early 2008, Chris Chung took over the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCsoft North America. On September 10, 2008, NCsoft announced major reorganizations in its western operations. The previously largely independent branches of the company in North America and Europe were combined under one company called NC West. Chris Chung took over the management of the company. The headquarters were moved from Austin to Seattle . In addition, ArenaNet's Jeff Strain and Patrick Wyatt held senior positions in NC West. Jeff Strain left NC West in 2009 and started his own studio, Undead Labs . Patrick Wyatt followed this example in 2010 and became CEO of En Masse Entertainment, the North American publisher of TERA .
In addition to developing its own games, NCsoft also publishes games from other developers. In 2004 the game City of Heroes and in 2005 the expansion City of Villains by the company Cryptic Studios were published. On April 13, 2006, NCsoft started the game Auto Assault by NetDevil , which received a USK rating of 18+ in Germany , but was discontinued on August 31, 2007. In development is Soccer Fury of Digital Legends Entertainment . At Gamescom 2011, NCsoft announced the MMO Wildstar Online, developed by Carbine Studios, which was launched in June 2014 and was discontinued in September 2018.
Games
Published titles
| title | developer | genre | status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aion | NCsoft (Team Aion) | MMORPG | Active since September 2009 |
| Blade & Soul | NCsoft (Team Bloodlust) | MMORPG | Active since June 2012 |
| Guild Wars | ArenaNet | MMORPG | Active since April 2005 |
| Guild Wars 2 | ArenaNet | MMORPG | Active since August 2012 |
| Lineage | NCsoft (Team L2Live) | MMORPG | Active since September 1998 |
| Lineage II | NCsoft | MMORPG | Active since October 2003 |
Discontinued titles
| title | developer | genre | status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Assault | NetDevil | MMORPG | Discontinued in August 2007 |
| City of Heroes | Paragon Studios | MMORPG | Discontinued in November 2012 |
| Dungeon Runners | NCsoft | MMORPG | Discontinued in January 2010 |
| Exteel | NCsoft | TPS | Discontinued in September 2010 |
| Master X Master | NCsoft (Team MXM) | MOBA | Discontinued in January 2018 |
| Tabula rasa | Destination Games | MMORPG | Discontinued in February 2009 |
| WildStar | Carbine Studios | MMORPG | Discontinued in September 2018 |
literature
- NCsoft In: Winnie Forster : Lexicon of computer and video game makers. First edition, p. 226. ISBN 978-3-00-021584-1 .
swell
- ↑ NCSoft HR information access = 2014-06-25 (English)
- ↑ An Open Letter From General British ( English ) November 21, 2008. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Accessed November 22, 2011th
- ↑ Garriot NCsoft complaint ( English ) 2009. Archived from the original on February 8, 2011. Retrieved on November 23, 2011.
- ^ Luke Plunkett: Richard Garriott Suing NCsoft For $ 24,000,000 ( English ) kotaku.com. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
- ↑ AJ Glasser: Lord British wins $ 28 million in NCsoft lawsuit ( English ) gamepro.com. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
- ↑ Kirk Ladendorf: Garriott wins $ 28 million jury award in NCsoft suit ( English ) statesman.com. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
- ↑ NCsoft.net : Press release (December 13, 2007)
- ↑ NCsoft Announces Formation of “NC West” , press release (September 10, 2008)
- ↑ Jason Schreier: WildStar Developer Carbine Studios Shuts Down ( English ) kotaku.com. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
- ↑ Unfortunately, Carbine Studios has recently closed its doors, and Wildstar has discontinued service. ( English ) wildstar-online.com. Retrieved January 4, 2019.