AI·Visual R&D Investment Expansion... NC Launches Full-Scale Global Market Offensive

Introducing Competitive Games Like 'Lineage2M' to Overseas Markets
Establishing AI Core Technologies to Strengthen Global Technological Competitiveness

NCSoft's Motion Capture Studio

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] NCSoft is actively investing and developing in various fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and visual technology to target the global market.

According to industry sources on the 27th, NCSoft has set a goal to showcase competitive games like 'Lineage 2M,' the pride of domestic mobile games, in overseas markets this year based on its high technological capabilities. Lineage 2M, launched in November last year, has maintained the number one spot in revenue on Google Play for four consecutive months, upholding the pride of domestic mobile games. At the shareholders' meeting held at NCSoft's R&D Center on the 25th, CEO Kim Taek-jin expressed strong determination to enter overseas markets, stating, "We will expand platforms from PC to mobile, and further to consoles, crossing boundaries to grow into a global comprehensive gaming company."

The representative fields where NCSoft focuses its R&D include ▲AI ▲visual ▲sound. The AI field is regarded as the most advanced in the industry. Among domestic companies, NCSoft was the first to dedicate efforts to AI research and plans to establish foundational AI technologies to strengthen global technological competitiveness across IT technologies. AI research is not limited to games but will be applied wherever excellent technology can be researched and developed to innovate. NCSoft's AI organization is divided into the AI Center and the Natural Language Processing (NLP) Center, with five laboratories dedicated to AI research and development. The AI Center includes ▲Game AI Lab ▲Speech Lab ▲Vision AI Lab, and the NLP Center includes ▲Language AI Lab ▲Knowledge AI Lab. The fact that only the Game AI Lab is directly related to games reveals NCSoft's AI development direction.

In 2016, NCSoft became the first domestic game company to establish an in-house motion capture studio and opened a specialized motion capture studio in Gwanggyo, Suwon last year. Additionally, the NCSoft 3D Scan Studio, established in 2017 as the first in a domestic game company, is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment that can 3D scan people and objects and model them instantly.

Meanwhile, according to the '2018 R&D Investment Status of the Global Top 1000 Companies' announced last month by the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, NCSoft invested 215 million euros (approximately 285 billion KRW) in R&D during 2018. The R&D investment ratio relative to sales was 16%, ranking second among 24 domestic companies included in the global top 1000 companies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.