NCSoft no longer GW2 Publisher...

MysteryB

So I just saw this, posting link below, but apparently Arenanet is now it's own Publisher, which I think is FANTASTIC, I hope this is bad news for NCSoft after the poor way they treat their customers, shutting down any game worth a damn (City of Heroes!) While letting games like Aion live on. I actually liked (not loved) Wildstar's free trial but I will not give NCsoft money anymore.


http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/01/pax-prime-2015-president-mike-obrien-addresses-rumors-about-business-model-and-the-arenanet-base-on-the-moon/

MysteryB

http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/01/pax-prime-2015-president-mike-obrien-addresses-rumors-about-business-model-and-the-arenanet-base-on-the-moon/

MysteryB

Sorry ha-ha I knew I forgot something

Arawulf

As of this time Guild Wars 2 still appears on the NCSoft homepage. Very interesting quote from O'brien in that article.

Since we were talking about the business model, I also asked about the rumors floating around regarding the change in the EULA. If you look closely, you might notice that all mentions of NCSoft have mysteriously disappeared. O’Brien shrugged that question off and said, “There is nothing tricky about that. ArenaNet is taking over the publishing of Guild Wars 2.”

At that point, Johanson jumped in to comment on another Reddit conspiracy, confirming that ArenaNet does in fact have a base on the moon and that all of ArenaNet’s employees will be relocating there with him.

http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/01/pax-prime-2015-president-mike-obrien-addresses-rumors-about-business-model-and-the-arenanet-base-on-the-moon/

jesteralways

They can't buy out NCSOft, that is one huge company but perhaps they bought out their share that was owned by NCSoft? And that would be a great news if they were going indie but as indie they would not have a financial backing that they would require when they would have to develop another game at the same scale as of GW2.

Loke666

jesteralways said:

They can't buy out NCSOft, that is one huge company but perhaps they bought out their share that was owned by NCSoft? And that would be a great news if they were going indie but as indie they would not have a financial backing that they would require when they would have to develop another game at the same scale as of GW2.

NC soft seems to be gone from the GW2 homepage as well. But I think the likely scenario is that ANET still is owned by NC soft but don't use them as publisher anymore. NC West have not really been doing great lately anyhow, with Wildstar and losing players for some other games it probably would be easier and cheaper to let Anet handle themselves and just cash in on the earnings.

NC soft have already been pretty hands off with ANET since the beginning. Then again, can't say I would be sad if ANET actually bought themselves loose and became anindie dev.

Dakeru

I'm playing GW1 currently - enjoying the lore and the prospect of earning HoM rewards for GW2.
If this rumor is true then I wonder what will become of the connection between these two games.

Loke666

Dakeru said:

I'm playing GW1 currently - enjoying the lore and the prospect of earning HoM rewards for GW2.
If this rumor is true then I wonder what will become of the connection between these two games.

Anet made both of them so nothing will happen there.

Dakeru

Loke666 said:

Dakeru said:

I'm playing GW1 currently - enjoying the lore and the prospect of earning HoM rewards for GW2.
If this rumor is true then I wonder what will become of the connection between these two games.

Anet made both of them so nothing will happen there.

Just checked the NCSoft site. GW1 is no longer listed as one of their games so I guess you are right.

Loke666

There is a huge thread on Reddit as well (but no-one had facts there either). The only interesting post is where someone pitched the idea that Activision Blizzard had bought them out and that is the reason Blizzard canned Titan. Yeah, a bit of a longshot but an interesting thought.

Nanfoodle

Either way I dont see this changing the direction of GW2 for the better. The longer the game is out the more it pulls away from what they promised to deliver. I got my moneys worth but I am done.

gervaise1

OP you do realise that AreaNet is a subsidiary of NCSoft?

Traditionally game companies had / still have a "Distribution / Publishing" arm but in recent years with the growth of online / decline of physical it has become more common for companies to incorporate game publishers into the development bit. At a guess I would say that this is what is being done here and will be for accounting purposes.

observer

This is interesting knowing that GW2 bombed in china with a different publisher (KongZhong).  Anet will be hurting financially if they try to publish themselves, since NCSoft is a major publisher.

observer

Loke666 said:

There is a huge thread on Reddit as well (but no-one had facts there either). The only interesting post is where someone pitched the idea that Activision Blizzard had bought them out and that is the reason Blizzard canned Titan. Yeah, a bit of a longshot but an interesting thought.

Haha, that would be a shocker if true.

FomaldehydeJim

If only this somehow meant that GW1 were to receive some love from the developers... wishful thinking though.  

Loke666

observer said:

This is interesting knowing that GW2 bombed in china with a different publisher (KongZhong).  Anet will be hurting financially if they try to publish themselves, since NCSoft is a major publisher.

I don't think so, ANET already are a known company here and the first game sold well.

In China few people had even heard of it. And GW2 sold acceptable the first 2 months in China, it was on the top 10 list (source Eurogamer). I wouldn't say that it sold good though, just acceptable. My guess is that it wasn't grindy enough for the Chinese players.

It isn't like the next Mass effect game would sell badly if Bioware bought themselves out.

A publisher is a benefit for small unknown companies but Anet have sold plenty of games, GW2 have sold over 5 million copies (source: ANETs pressrelease last week) and GW1 over 8 million copies (but that includes 3 campaigns and the expansion). Still a large enough quantity.

One thing that could increase sales though would be to put it up at Steam, that would be better than anything NC soft can do.

MadDemon64

NCSoft always seemed like it was very hands off in its publishing, which is very rare for a publisher.
I'm honestly not too surprised about this.  Well, ok, I am surprised in that I never expected this to happen, but still...

Superman0X

NCSoft West was the publisher for Guild Wars... however this part of NCSoft is being closed, and publishing moved in house for ANet and Carbine. If it was not for Wildstar needing a publisher, this would have happened much earlier.

Arglebargle

The less NCSoft, the better, imo.   Let them go back to focusing on Asia where they understand their user base.

Raagnarz

Yeah check out the massively mentioned EULA changes and all references to NCsoft have been replaced with ArenaNet. 

https://twitter.com/that_shaman/status/636234905475776520

Alverant

Good for them! But I was under the impression 3 years ago that part of why NCSoft shut down CoH was to improve their outlook and cut expenses because GW2 was costing more than expected and they had to cut something or else their stock price might suffer a tiny bit. Now if only ANET could also bring back CoH with my characters.... (Yes I know it's impossible after 3 years but I still love the game.)

d_20

Dakeru said:

I'm playing GW1 currently - enjoying the lore and the prospect of earning HoM rewards for GW2.
If this rumor is true then I wonder what will become of the connection between these two games.

How's the population of GW1? Still have a lot of players and pvp?

Dakeru

d_20 said:

How's the population of GW1? Still have a lot of players and pvp?

Well I see people talking and the guilds are all joined together in alliances to keep the chat at least somewhat active.
I don't pvp because I'm not really interested in getting elite trash talking from players who have been playing for 10 years when I am brand new to the game.
However I asked my guild leader and she said that often there aren't enough people to build pvp parties.

PS: Gw2 people are somewhat hated on the game. Last night I said in alliance chat that apparently NCSoft is no longer the publisher and that Anet is now publishing GW1 and GW2 themselves.

"So is GW2 worth playing now then?"
-They remove their publisher and all you have to comment on is that you hate GW2?
"Omg get off this game now"

...charming...

Lobotomist

Nanfoodle said:

Either way I dont see this changing the direction of GW2 for the better. The longer the game is out the more it pulls away from what they promised to deliver. I got my moneys worth but I am done.

Exactly.

I applaud them for leaving NCSoft.

But GW2 is a joke. I too got my money worth. But there is absolutely nothing that warants longer more dedicated play. And what is even more sad, nothing that is promised in expansion is not changing that.

So much for that "next gen MMO"

Phry

Loke666 said:

observer said:

This is interesting knowing that GW2 bombed in china with a different publisher (KongZhong).  Anet will be hurting financially if they try to publish themselves, since NCSoft is a major publisher.

I don't think so, ANET already are a known company here and the first game sold well.

In China few people had even heard of it. And GW2 sold acceptable the first 2 months in China, it was on the top 10 list (source Eurogamer). I wouldn't say that it sold good though, just acceptable. My guess is that it wasn't grindy enough for the Chinese players.

It isn't like the next Mass effect game would sell badly if Bioware bought themselves out.

A publisher is a benefit for small unknown companies but Anet have sold plenty of games, GW2 have sold over 5 million copies (source: ANETs pressrelease last week) and GW1 over 8 million copies (but that includes 3 campaigns and the expansion). Still a large enough quantity.

One thing that could increase sales though would be to put it up at Steam, that would be better than anything NC soft can do.

Not only is Arenanet a known company, but compared to NCSoft, its probably liked better too, if they were in fact now completely seperate from NCSoft, i would view that as a good thing, i think GW2 is successful enough that they probably don't need NCSoft now anyway, and their recent move to make GW2 f2p as a promotion to get people to buy the HoT expansion, is, tbh, a blinder, i would expect them to sell millions of the things pretty much on that basis.

ET3D

That's good news. Makes me want to test GW2 now that it's free. I was a CoH player for several years, and tried other NCsoft games, and the thing I hated most (well, apart from closing CoH) was their support. If I can play GW2 without ever having to get close to NCsoft support, that's a big bonus.