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"Realignment of company focus and publishing support" amounts to officialese for "we decided to close it down".
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===Closure of Paragon Studios and City of Heroes===
===Closure of Paragon Studios and City of Heroes===
On August 31, 2012, NCsoft [[liquidated]] Paragon Studios and announced the closure of City of Heroes.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php</ref> Servers are planned to shut down by November 30, 2012.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/city_of_heroes_sunset_faq.php</ref> Members of the studio learned the news only a few hours before the players, and all 80 were dismissed from employment by the afternoon.{{cn|date=October 2012}} In addition, in-game financial processes terminated immediately, leaving players unable to resubscribe before the shut down.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php</ref> In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios.
On August 31, 2012, NCsoft [[liquidated]] Paragon Studios and announced the closure of City of Heroes.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php</ref> Servers are planned to shut down by November 30, 2012.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/city_of_heroes_sunset_faq.php</ref> Members of the studio learned the news only a few hours before the players, and all 80 were dismissed from employment by the afternoon.{{cn|date=October 2012}} In addition, in-game financial processes terminated immediately, leaving players unable to resubscribe before the shut down.<ref>http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php</ref> The exact reasons behind this sudden closure remain unknown, the official announcements explaining it only as "a realignment of company focus and publishing support".


Players have reached out to [[social media]] with their criticism of NCsoft's closing procedures.<ref>http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-840174</ref> Efforts range from in-game protests<ref>http://kotaku.com/5941607/city-of-heroes-protest-takes-its-case-to-city-hall</ref> to actively contacting other companies such as Valve.<ref>http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296213</ref> Some aim to convince NCsoft to reverse their decision, but NCsoft continues to reaffirm the closure.<ref>http://us.ncsoft.com/en/news/response-to-city-of-heroes-player-and-fan-suggestions.html</ref> Players have also attempted to boycott NCsoft, and speculate NCsoft's financial decline<ref>http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=036570%3AKS</ref> as demonstrative of customer dissatisfaction. Fan-based communities are also attempting to convince NCsoft to either sell the intellectual property and code to another company, preferently a reformed Paragon Studios under new management, or release server and game information to run [[private servers]] or [[emulations]]. Celebrities such as [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[John Kovalic]] showed their support through [[Twitter]], and [[John C. Wright]] wrote a personal request to NCsoft on his blog.<ref>http://www.dealspwn.com/neil-gaiman-john-wright-john-kovalic-mercedes-lackey-support-save-city-heroes-campaign-113562</ref> [[Mercedes Lackey]] has been an active player for several years, and assisted the effort by volunteering to provide five to ten years of free endorsement for NCsoft if they preserve City of Heroes. In addition, fans have worked on projects to support the former employees. They ran in-game events in tribute to the lead designer<ref>http://www.savecoh.com/2012/09/call-to-action-positrons-ally.html</ref> and funded an honorary dinner for the studio.<ref>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/city-of-heroes-fans-buy-paragon-studios-a-meal-and-proclaim-alle/</ref> As of November 2012, NCsoft has not made any changes to its decision.
Players have reached out to [[social media]] with their criticism of NCsoft's closing procedures.<ref>http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-840174</ref> Efforts range from in-game protests<ref>http://kotaku.com/5941607/city-of-heroes-protest-takes-its-case-to-city-hall</ref> to actively contacting other companies such as Valve.<ref>http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296213</ref> Some aim to convince NCsoft to reverse their decision, but NCsoft continues to reaffirm the closure.<ref>http://us.ncsoft.com/en/news/response-to-city-of-heroes-player-and-fan-suggestions.html</ref> Players have also attempted to boycott NCsoft, and speculate NCsoft's financial decline<ref>http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=036570%3AKS</ref> as demonstrative of customer dissatisfaction. Fan-based communities are also attempting to convince NCsoft to either sell the intellectual property and code to another company, preferently a reformed Paragon Studios under new management, or release server and game information to run [[private servers]] or [[emulations]]. Celebrities such as [[Neil Gaiman]] and [[John Kovalic]] showed their support through [[Twitter]], and [[John C. Wright]] wrote a personal request to NCsoft on his blog.<ref>http://www.dealspwn.com/neil-gaiman-john-wright-john-kovalic-mercedes-lackey-support-save-city-heroes-campaign-113562</ref> [[Mercedes Lackey]] has been an active player for several years, and assisted the effort by volunteering to provide five to ten years of free endorsement for NCsoft if they preserve City of Heroes. In addition, fans have worked on projects to support the former employees. They ran in-game events in tribute to the lead designer<ref>http://www.savecoh.com/2012/09/call-to-action-positrons-ally.html</ref> and funded an honorary dinner for the studio.<ref>http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/city-of-heroes-fans-buy-paragon-studios-a-meal-and-proclaim-alle/</ref> As of November 2012, NCsoft has not made any changes to its decision.

Revision as of 15:53, 8 November 2012

NCsoft Corporation
㈜엔씨소프트
Company typePublic company
KRX: 036570
IndustryComputer and video games
Interactive entertainment
FoundedMarch 11, 1997
HeadquartersSeoul, 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
ProductsAion
Blade & Soul
City of Heroes
Exteel
Guild Wars
Guild Wars 2
Lineage
Lineage II
Number of employees
~3,000
Websitehttp://www.ncsoft.net/

NCsoft (KRX: 036570) is a South Korea-based online video game company, which publishes massively multiplayer online role-playing games including Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, 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, and would later become NCsoft west.) 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 announced Blade & Soul, the next MMORPG after AION, 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.

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

Development studios

NCsoft is a developer and publisher of online computer games. NCsoft West is the arm of NCsoft with operating responsibility for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand. It houses its publishing headquarters in Seattle, Washington.

The company currently 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.

The following development studios were previously owned by NCSoft:

  • Paragon Studios (Mountain View, California) – Formerly called NCsoft NorCal, Paragon Studios developed the City of Heroes franchise. On August 31, 2012 NCSoft announced the closure of Paragon Studios and the sunsetting of City of Heroes "in a realignment of company focus and publishing support".[6]

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.[citation needed] According to NCsoft, the potential damages may exceed US$1 billion.[7]

Worlds.com patent lawsuit

On December 24, 2008, NCsoft was targeted in a patent infringement case over its entire series of MMO software titles.[8] 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.[9] 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).[10][11] 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."[12]

On April 23, 2010, the Worlds.com case settled. The court ordered dismissal with prejudice based on a binding settlement agreement between Worlds.com and NCSoft. Terms of the settlement are for now confidential.[13] On July 22, 2010, Worlds.com requested the case be reopened.[14]

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. In addition, he claims that the company is 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. Garriott said that he was "extremely pleased with the decision", but NCsoft vowed to appeal it.[16] NCsoft lost the appeal and had to pay an additional $4 million dollars in damages.[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.[18] Servers are planned to shut down by November 30, 2012.[19] Members of the studio learned the news only a few hours before the players, and all 80 were dismissed from employment by the afternoon.[citation needed] In addition, in-game financial processes terminated immediately, leaving players unable to resubscribe before the shut down.[20] The exact reasons behind this sudden closure remain unknown, the official announcements explaining it only as "a realignment of company focus and publishing support".

Players have reached out to social media with their criticism of NCsoft's closing procedures.[21] Efforts range from in-game protests[22] to actively contacting other companies such as Valve.[23] Some aim to convince NCsoft to reverse their decision, but NCsoft continues to reaffirm the closure.[24] Players have also attempted to boycott NCsoft, and speculate NCsoft's financial decline[25] as demonstrative of customer dissatisfaction. Fan-based communities are also attempting to convince NCsoft to either sell the intellectual property and code to another company, preferently a reformed Paragon Studios under new management, or release server and game information to run private servers or emulations. Celebrities such as Neil Gaiman and John Kovalic showed their support through Twitter, and John C. Wright wrote a personal request to NCsoft on his blog.[26] Mercedes Lackey has been an active player for several years, and assisted the effort by volunteering to provide five to ten years of free endorsement for NCsoft if they preserve City of Heroes. In addition, fans have worked on projects to support the former employees. They ran in-game events in tribute to the lead designer[27] and funded an honorary dinner for the studio.[28] As of November 2012, NCsoft has not made any changes to its decision.

As of November 7th 2012, Starburst magazine has published an editorial, appealing its' readers to boycott NCsoft and stating that the company has refused to comment on the situation.

Customer satisfaction

NCsoft and RightNow Technologies were both recognized in 2006 with the "Beagle Research 'Whiz Kids' Award for Innovative Embedded Customer Service Solution."[29] for NCsoft's integration of RightNow's customer support software.

Games

Available

Title Developer Genre Status
Aion NCsoft (Team Aion) MMO Active since 2009.
Blade & Soul NCsoft (Team Bloodlust) MMO Active since 2012.
City of Heroes series Cryptic Studios & Paragon Studios MMO Active since 2004. Scheduled to close November 2012.
Guild Wars series ArenaNet MMO Active since 2005.
Lineage series NCsoft (Team L2Live) 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 (Korean Server) Gravity Corp. 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.
City of Heroes Paragon Studios MMO Closure announced August 31, 2012.

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.
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. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  2. ^ "Guild Wars Announces Six Million Units Sold".
  3. ^ "Agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment".[dead link]
  4. ^ http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2008/09/ncsoft_announce_31.html[dead link]
  5. ^ Caoili, Eric (July 27, 2011). "NCSoft Purchases Seoul-Based Mobile Dev Hotdog Studio". Gamasutra. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  6. ^ "Farewell, from all of us at Paragon Studios". Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Chosun Ilbo article". April 26, 2007.[dead link]
  8. ^ http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/12/worldscom-files-suit-against-ncsoft.html[dead link]
  9. ^ "NCsoft Hit with Patent Infringement Lawsuit".
  10. ^ "Worlds.com Targets World of Warcraft, Second Life For Patent Suit".
  11. ^ "Worlds.com CEO: We're 'Absolutely' Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft".
  12. ^ Brennan, Seraphina. "NCsoft prepares the defense against Worlds.com". Joystiq. Massively.
  13. ^ http://khz3d.com/worldsblog/?p=108[dead link]
  14. ^ http://khz3d.com/worldsblog/?p=113[dead link]
  15. ^ massively.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/richard-garriott-blasts-ncsoft-with-24-million-lawsuit/
  16. ^ Kim, Tong-hyung (July 30, 2010). "Garriott wins $28 mil. in NCsoft lawsuit".
  17. ^ "Garriott wins appeal in NCsoft case". RICHARD GARRIOTT v. NCSOFT CORPORATION. Retrieved October 30 2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  18. ^ http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php
  19. ^ http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/city_of_heroes_sunset_faq.php
  20. ^ http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php
  21. ^ http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-840174
  22. ^ http://kotaku.com/5941607/city-of-heroes-protest-takes-its-case-to-city-hall
  23. ^ http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296213
  24. ^ http://us.ncsoft.com/en/news/response-to-city-of-heroes-player-and-fan-suggestions.html
  25. ^ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=036570%3AKS
  26. ^ http://www.dealspwn.com/neil-gaiman-john-wright-john-kovalic-mercedes-lackey-support-save-city-heroes-campaign-113562
  27. ^ http://www.savecoh.com/2012/09/call-to-action-positrons-ally.html
  28. ^ http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/13/city-of-heroes-fans-buy-paragon-studios-a-meal-and-proclaim-alle/
  29. ^ https://www.rightnow.com/crm-news-1357.php[dead link]

External links

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