NC in Crisis, Shifts to 'Multi-Studio' System... Accelerates Game Development Speed

Transition to Independent Studio System
Aiming to Maximize Genre-Specific Game Development Expertise and Creativity

NCSoft officially announced its transition to a 'multi-studio' system through a subsidiary split. This strategy is seen as an effort to alleviate the 'excessive headquarters concentration' pointed out as a cause of recent poor performance and to respond to the rapidly changing market environment through the flexibility of independent development studios. Industry experts analyze that NCSoft has chosen the path of change with a bold decision at the golden time.

Entering the Development Speed Competition

According to the industry on the 29th, NCSoft held an extraordinary board meeting on the 21st and decided to establish four new subsidiaries through a simple and physical split. Among these, three subsidiaries will serve as independent game development studios, each responsible for games such as 'THRONE AND LIBERTY (TL)', 'LLL', and 'TACTAN'.

Since its founding, NCSoft has maintained a headquarters-centered development and publishing system. This system allowed the company to concentrate its entire corporate capabilities on a single game, enabling the release of high-quality works, and based on this, NCSoft secured numerous competitive IPs. However, amid recent poor performance, there were criticisms about slow decision-making speed and limitations in taking on new challenges.

Especially as trends in the gaming industry rapidly change, the importance of speedy development tailored to users' preferences is increasing. Accordingly, many game companies are shifting to a 'multi-studio' system. This system is also evaluated as a suitable approach for NCSoft, which is challenging various genres and platforms.

Rising Expectations for LLL and TACTAN

TL, LLL, and TACTAN, which will be responsible for development as independent studios, are evaluated as IPs with competitiveness and success potential in the global market. NCSoft plans to strengthen expertise through the independent studio system. First, it aims to grow TL into a global IP leading the worldwide MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) market. TL recorded 3 million users in its first week of global launch, currently surpassing 24 million cumulative play hours and exceeding 4 million users.

Co-CEOs Kim Taek-jin and Park Byung-moo stated in a letter to Amazon Games, "Through specialized development studios, TL will be developed as a highly complete game in a creative and dynamic environment," adding, "We will establish ourselves as a global game studio through a close partnership with Amazon Games."

Expectations are also growing for LLL and TACTAN, which will be responsible for development under the studio system. NCSoft is focusing on genres such as shooting and strategy games, which have a large user base in the global market. These games received favorable reviews from domestic users at the recent G-STAR event.

'Moon Rover Games' and 'Big Game Studio', invested in by NCSoft, are also expected to contribute to diversifying NCSoft's portfolio. These developers have strengths in cooperative shooting games and subculture games, respectively.

Attention is focused on whether this transition to a multi-studio system can increase NCSoft's game development speed and diversity, providing new growth engines.

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