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 Orange County, California, USA Bangkok, Thailand San Mateo, California, USA
Key people	T.J. Kim, CEO
Products	Aion Blade & Soul Guild Wars Guild Wars 2 Lineage Lineage II WildStar
Revenue	US$ 686.6 million (2012)[2]
Operating income	US$ 137.0 million (2012)[2]
Net income	US$ 142.0 million (2012)[2]
Total assets	US$ 1.2 billion (2012)[2]
Total equity	US$ 922.9 million (2012)[2]
Number of employees	3100 (including 16 global subsidiareis, as of Dec 31, 2015)
Website	http://www.ncsoft.com/

T.J. Kim, the CEO of NCSOFT

NCSOFT is a South Korea-based online, video and mobile game development company that has produced Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Guild Wars, Aion, Blade & Soul, and Master X Master.

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. In 2004, NCSOFT launched two MMORPGs, Lineage II and City of Heroes.^[3]

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 26, 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.^[4] On August 28, 2012, NCSOFT launched Guild Wars 2.

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]

On June, 2012, NCSOFT launched Blade & Soul, the next MMORPG after AION, in 2006. NCSOFT has shown the next MMORPG before 2 weeks in Project[M] name and released Blade & Soul in NCSOFT Media Day in Korea.

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

In November, 2012, NCSOFT closed down City of Heroes.

On June 3, 2014, Wildstar became available for play.

Customer satisfaction

NCSOFT and RightNow Technologies were both recognized in 2006 with the "Beagle Research 'Whiz Kids' Award for Innovative Embedded Customer Service Solution."^[10] for NCSOFT's integration of RightNow's customer support software.

Subsidiaries

Current

• ArenaNet
• Carbine Studios
• Iron Tiger Studios

Former

• Destination Games
• Paragon Studios

Games

Under Development

Available

End of Life / Closed

Titles not available in English

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

Corporate Social Responsibility

NCSOFT founded NCSOFT Cultural Foundation in 2012, which develops software for the handicapped and runs diverse social contribution programmes.

• My First AAC (2013~) : Developed Korean Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app and distributed free of charge for children with language disorders.
• Injini (2010~): Developed cognition enhancing game app and distributed free of charge for children with cognition impairment
• Sports programs for disabled kids and their families(2014~): Supports physical and rehabilitation activities for young athletes with cognition and development disabilities.
• Special school programs for healthy and fun learning environment(2012~): Provides cultural and sports activities for students with cognition and development disabilities.
• Storyhelper (2010~): Developed Korea’s first storytelling SW that supports writers’ contents creation in collaboration with Digital Storytelling Laboratory of Ewha Womans University.
• Freerice (2011~2015): In collaboration with UN WFP, it is both PC and mobile English quiz game that donates 10 grains of rice for every correct answers.

Controversy

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.^[11] According to NCSOFT, the potential damages may exceed US$1 billion.^[12]

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^[13] and targeted NCSOFT for patent infringement in 2008,^[14] in what he says will be the first of many lawsuits against MMO developers.^[13] 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 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, losing him millions of dollars. In addition, he claimed that the company was guilty of fraud by forging his resignation announcement.^[15] On July 30, 2010, a jury in a Texas federal court awarded him US$28 million in damages. NCSOFT appealed the ruling.^[16] 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.^[17]

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^[18] and many used social media to promote their criticisms.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to NCSOFT.

• NCSOFT
• NCSOFT West