NCsoft

NCsoft Corporation
㈜엔씨소프트

Type	Public company
Traded as	KRX: 036570
Industry	Computer and video games Interactive entertainment
Founded	March 11, 1997
Headquarters	Seoul, South Korea[1] Subsidiary Companies Seattle, Washington, USA Osaka, Japan New Taipei, Taiwan Shanghai, China Brighton, England Austin, Texas, USA Mountain View, California, USA Orange County, California, USA Bangkok, Thailand
Key people	T.J. Kim, CEO
Products	Aion Blade & Soul City of Heroes Exteel Guild Wars Guild Wars 2 Lineage Lineage II
Employees	~3,000
Website	http://www.ncsoft.net/

NCsoft (KRX: 036570) is a South Korea-based online video game company, which has published massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Lineage, Exteel, Guild Wars and Aion.

History

NCsoft was originally founded in March 1997 by T.J. Kim, a business software developer and author of the Korean word processor Hangul. One of the company's first products was NC HTML Editor. In September 1998, NCsoft launched its first and most popular game, Lineage. Lineage was the first MMORPG to exceed the record of 100,000 concurrent users for the first time in Korea in December 2000. The success of this game helped the company expand to locations in Taiwan, China, Japan, Europe and the United States.

In April 2001 the company created a US subsidiary under the name NC Interactive (based in Austin, Texas) after acquiring Destination Games, headed by Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott. NCsoft programmer Jake Song also moved to Austin in order to stimulate development. NC Interactive published and developed MMORPGs and became the North American headquarters for (which had been established in May 2000 and operating from a small office in California).

On the same day, April 28, 2004, NCsoft's North American operation launched two major MMORPGs, Lineage II and City of Heroes. To date, NCsoft is the only MMORPG publisher to launch two products of this scale on the same day.

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 established Lineage II service for Europe as well.

On April 28, 2005, the company launched Guild Wars, a MMORPG with no subscription model. Expansions followed: Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall and Guild Wars Eye of the North. On April 24, 2009, NCsoft announced that Guild Wars had sold more than six million units.^[2]

It was announced at E3 2007 that NCsoft had become an exclusive third party Sony developer, and will be developing exclusive games for the PlayStation Network.^[3]

On July, 2007, NCsoft has announced Blade & Soul, the next MMORPG after AION has announced in 2006. NCsoft has shown the next MMORPG before 2 weeks in Project[M] name and release to Blade & Soul in NCsoft Media Day in Korea. The game is changed the concept of MMORPG because it will release to PC online and PlayStation Network online system.

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.^[4]

On July 8, 2011, NCsoft has started a contract with SK Telecom to acquire Ntreev Soft Co., Ltd. After NCsoft has always failed launching casual online game in South Korea successfully.

In 2011, NCSoft purchased Hotdog Studio, a mobile game studio based in Seoul that produces phone and smartphone titles such as Dark Shrine.^[5]

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. According to NCsoft, the potential damages may exceed $1 billion USD.^[6]

Worlds.com patent lawsuit

On December 24, 2008, NCsoft was targeted in a patent infringement case over its entire series of MMO software titles.^[7] Worlds.com has filed suit in Texas claiming NCsoft has infringed on its patent for a "system and method for enabling users to interact in a virtual space," and are pushing for an injunction to stop all games covered in the suit along with seeking unspecified damages. While only NCsoft has been named in the suit, many sources have observed that the patent (if upheld in this case) could be used to draw royalties from basically every MMO currently running.^[8] Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin has recently stated that if they win their suit against NCsoft that his company fully intends to pursue other companies such as Activision Blizzard (for World of Warcraft) and Linden Lab (for Second Life).^[9][10] An NCsoft representative is quoted as saying,"We can't comment on potential litigation except to say that NCsoft takes all legal action seriously -- even if the company believes a lawsuit has no merit. We intend to defend ourselves vigorously."^{[citation needed]}

April 23, 2010, Worlds.com case settled. The court on April 23, 2010, ordered dismissal with prejudice based on a binding settlement agreement between Worlds.com and NCSoft. Terms of the settlement are for now confidential.^[11] On July 22, 2010, Worlds.com requested the case be reopened.^[12]

Richard Garriott termination

Richard Garriott, lead developer of Tabula Rasa, sued NCsoft for US$47 million in damages concerning his termination from the company. Garriott asserts in his suit that he was forced out of the company and was made to sell his 400,000 shares in NCSoft's stock, losing him millions of dollars. On July 30, 2010, a jury in a Texas federal court awarded him $28 million. Garriott said that he was "extremely pleased with the decision", but NCSoft vowed to appeal it.^[13]

Customer satisfaction

NCsoft and RightNow Technologies were both recognized in 2006 with the "Beagle Research 'Whiz Kids' Award for Innovative Embedded Customer Service Solution."^[14] for NCsoft's integration of RightNow's customer support software.

According to the Better Business Bureau, in the 36 months leading up to August 15, 2010, 133 complaints have been filed against NCsoft. NCsoft currently has a BBB rating of "B-."^[15] By comparison Electronic Arts had 1005 complaints and has a rating of "A"^[16] and Sony Online Entertainment had 145 complaints and has a rating of "A"^[17] for the same time period.

Development studios

NCsoft is a developer and publisher of online computer games. NCsoft West, the arm of NCsoft with operating responsibility for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand, houses its publishing headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The company also owns development studios on the United States West Coast:

• ArenaNet (Bellevue, Washington) – ArenaNet is the creator of Guild Wars, and its sequel, Guild Wars 2.
• Carbine Studios (Aliso Viejo, California) – Carbine Studios was founded in 2005 and is working on Wildstar.
• Game Production Studio (Seattle, Washington) – The NCsoft Game Production Studio brings products from the NCsoft development teams in Seoul to the West, including Lineage, Lineage II, Exteel and Aion.
• Paragon Studios (Mountain View, California) – Formerly called NCsoft NorCal, Paragon Studios develops the City of Heroes franchise.

Games

Available

Title	Developer	Genre	Status
Aion	NCsoft (Team Aion)	MMO	Active since 2009.
Blade & Soul	NCsoft (Team Bloodlust)	MMO	ETA 2011.
City of Heroes series	Cryptic Studios & Paragon Studios	MMO	Active since 2004.
Guild Wars series	ArenaNet	MMO	Active since 2005.
Lineage series	NCsoft	MMO	Active since 1998.
WildStar	Carbine Studios	MMO	ETA unknown.

Game available from Ntreev Soft Co., Ltd.

Title	Developer	Genre	Status
Trickster	Ntreev Soft	MMO	Active since 2009.
PangYa	Ntreev Soft	Sport Casual	Active since 2004.
The story of my horse and me, Alicia	Ntreev Soft	Sport Casual	Active since 2010.

End of Life / Closed

Title	Developer	Genre	Status
Auto Assault	NetDevil	MMO	Closed August 31, 2007.
Dungeon Runners	NCsoft	MMO	Closed January 1, 2010.
Dragonica	Barunson Interactive	Casual MMO	Closed July 13, 2011.
Exteel	NCsoft (E&G Studios)	TPS	Closed September 1, 2010.
Point Blank (Korean Server)	Zepetto	FPS	Closed July 13, 2011.
Tabula Rasa	Destination Games	MMO	Closed February 28, 2009.

Titles not available in English

Title	Developer	Genre	Status
Jan Ryu Mon	NCsoft Japan	Mahjong	Japanese release only.
Love Beat	CrazyDiamond	Dance game	Korean and Thai release only.
Murim Jekook	Longtu Network Technology	Strategy	Korean release only.
Point Blank	Zepetto	FPS	Thai release only.
Punch Monster	Next Play	MMO	Korean 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. http://www.ncsoft.net/global/aboutus/globalnetwork.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-01. 
2. ^ Guild Wars Announces Six Million Units Sold
3. ^ Agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment
4. ^ http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2008/09/ncsoft_announce_31.html
5. ^ Eric Caoili, Gamasutra. "NCSoft Purchases Seoul-Based Mobile Dev Hotdog Studio." July 27, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
6. ^ Chosun Ilbo article - April 26, 2007
7. ^ http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/12/worldscom-files-suit-against-ncsoft.html
8. ^ http://news.softpedia.com/news/NCsoft-Hit-with-Patent-Infringement-Lawsuit-101021.shtml
9. ^ http://www.kotaku.com.au/games/2009/03/worldscom_targets_world_of_warcraft_second_life_for_patent_suit-2.html
10. ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/worldscom-ceo-were-absolutely-going-to-sue-second-life-and-world-of-warcraft-2009-3
11. ^ http://khz3d.com/worldsblog/?p=108
12. ^ http://khz3d.com/worldsblog/?p=113
13. ^ Kim, Tong-hyung (July 30, 2010). "Garriott wins $28 mil. in NCsoft lawsuit". http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2010/07/123_70538.html. 
14. ^ https://www.rightnow.com/crm-news-1357.php
15. ^ http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/professional-services-general/ncsoft-corporation-in-austin-tx-58760
16. ^ http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/video-games-wholesale-and-manufacturers/electronic-arts-inc-in-redwood-city-ca-64196
17. ^ http://www.bbb.org/san-diego/business-reviews/computers-software-and-services/sony-online-entertainment-inc-in-san-diego-ca-11000350/

External links

• NCsoft
• NCsoft West