NCSoft moving away from gaming

Publisher and developer NCSoft is the largest game company in Korea but, in spite of its previously recognized market success, might drift away from releasing video games. Korea Times has the scoop as pointed out by Playnoevil. I found the news rather odd considering NCSoft’s latest activities, which included the acquisition of a new IP and the Tabula Rasa release. While City of Heroes/Villains just moved under the NCSoft wing completely as the new development studio is in-house, the player base is nothing spectacular. Lineage II shows signs of aging, as subscriptions aren’t what they used to be one year ago in Asia, where the game saw most of its success. This leaves NCSoft with the promise of rejuvenation through Tabula Rasa. The super hyped MMO still has to show its true potential, but thus far feedback hasn’t been outstanding.

Given the context there’s no wonder NCSoft and revenues are down by 16% in the last quarter. The problem is NCSoft stock almost halved in the last two months. Suffice to say such news will not go unattended in the upper hierarchy and Korea Times speculates on NCSoft’s interest in virtual worlds. The publisher released a series of social-networking services from Openmaru, an in-house software studio, with strong support from CEO Kim Taek-jin. The inside word is that investors are no longer happy with the perspectives of making money off online games and might steer the company into the online services sector. However, this niche has been taken care of by relatively new enterprises like Naver, Daum and SK Communications big portals operators. During a special lecture at the Seoul National University, NCSoft CEO stated that “After games, the Internet has become my new dream.” Fans won’t enjoy the new direction in which NCSoft is going and we might see less releases in the future.

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