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General: NC West Announced, Layoffs Rumored
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Amid rumors of another round of layoffs at NCsoft's Austin and Brighton Studios, NCsoft has announced the formation of NC West, a new corporate structure that will oversee NCsofts products for the European and North American markets.
SEOUL, Korea, Sept. 10, 2008—NCsoft ® Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS), the world's leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), including award-winning franchises Lineage®, Guild Wars® and City of Heroes®, today announced the formation of "NC West™". A wholly-owned subsidiary of NCsoft with operating responsibility for western regions including the US and Europe, NC West will be led by Chris Chung as CEO, Jeff Strain as president, product development, David Reid as president, publishing, and Patrick Wyatt as CTO as well as yet unannounced European executives.
NCsoft's existing subsidiaries NC Interactive, NC Europe, NC Austin, and ArenaNet will be led as a unified organization under NC West with a dedicated focus towards becoming the world's premier western publisher of MMOs. NC West is the tentative name for the organization, and the company expects to announce final naming and corporate structure in the near future. NC West's headquarters is planned to be established in Seattle, WA by the end of 2008.
Read more about NC West here.
Read more about the layoffs here.
Comments
Well to be the premier publisher of MMO's in the west they need far far better games than they are producing now. I kind of doubt that is going to happen. Taking popular eastern games massaging them for a western audience is not going to do it. They need to innovate and separate themselves from the rest of the field.
Problem with the type of game they need is that is probably won't be popular with asian audiences.
Looks to me like they're sending the garriott boys packing. They won't need Austin with NC West, so there goes both brothers Garriott.
Good riddance,
Prehaps they should spend less time trying to get on the moon, and more time making quality games.
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If they remove all instancing from their games and go with a flat subscription rate, they then would have a foundation for making a successful MMOG for the western market.
Fire Garriott the gadfly, go to a unified pricing system, and bring back Auto Assault.
Tabula Rasa is going to be a dud. Good concept but just didn't "wow" me when I was in the beta. Not to mention the tutorial is rather weak and that may have turned off some new players.
Though their other games are still doing quite well. Lineage 2 is one the biggest games in asia, City of Heroes/Villains still has a strong playerbase (slightly swelled sub numbers this year), Dungeon Runners and Exsteel are free-to-play games. Hard to say how Guild Wars is doing since there aren't any sub numbers to go by, since there aren't and sub fees. The last expansion pack sold well I read so I'll assume that game is doing fine too.
So TR is a dud, it happens. No company can be perfect with every game they make. Heck, Blizzard scrapped Starcraft Ghost and the adventure game Warcraft Lord of the Clans too.
Tabula Rasa has come a very long way since the beta days and a ton of things have been fixed since launch. If you haven't come back to the game within the last month or two then you don't know Tabula Rasa as it exists today. There is no way that they will let it drop, at least not so soon after launch. Hell they even kept Auto Assault going for a year, despite the lack of subscriptions from the very beginning. Tabula Rasa still has some room to prove itself as a worthwhile investment.
Not only Tabula personel, few rednames of City of Heroes have to go also. (among a few 'very famous' ones).
The negativity in this forum is amazing. I guess it's in vogue to be a pessimist.
Regardless, for those commenting who haven't played since BETA (many of you), the Tabula Rasa has vastly improved. NCSoft is making an excellent move and should be commended.
I really disliked TR in the beta. I went back a few months ago and it was great. I had a good time. It doesn't have the staying power , imo, to warrant months of play, but I feel strongly that it is one of the best games on the market. If you haven't played since beta, you haven't played it. Jump in, give it a few days, and you'll find yourself getting pulled in. In a good way. And this is coming from someone who loathed it !
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For those who think the game hasn't changed since BETA or that the Dev team doesn't know what really works for an MMO, I highly suggest reading this article (www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/150/feature/2179). This in an interview from PAX and embodies the spirit of change and improvement that is driving the dev's.
If you ask me, The formation of NC West may really meanis the strengthening of NC East- it sounds like NC West is really be more of a damage control measure. Also (and I'm now going into 'conspiracy theory' territory, don't take me too seriously) they may be trying to move towards some affiliation with microsoft. Or they just are going to seattle for cheap shipping on hardware. And the formation of NC West (thinking of it optomistically, now) might just mean they're sure that they need to tailor MMO's to either market.
As for Tabula Rasa, it really is very much like World of Warcraft. The factor of being a shooter is truly an illusion; you would merely need to tamper with the camera and enemy selecting on WoW to get the same effect- and I'm sure some people who think that all MMO's are WoW or imitators thereof would think it very creative. And creativity is (supposedly) what TR is good for- a sci-fi theme (totally done before), guns (done possibibly with a similar engine in Auto Assault) and a funny camera don't earn that coveted title, if you ask me.
I did try TR again last month. I got an email saying my old account was reactivated til end of August. Well I like free, I can afford free so I gave it another try.
Again it just didn't impress me enough to warrant subscribing. It wasn't a terrible game, no tech issues and ran smoothly, just may not be to many people's tastes. I still found the tutorial rather lacking, so I'm sure that may put off some people. Perhaps it can get a small but loyal following in its particular niche, much like CoX. Don't need millions of subs like That Other Game to be profitable.
I would not speak too assuredly that TR doesn't need a large amount of subscribers to be profitable. It is quite truly hard to say how much cost, income, and profit the game is making. Not to cry doom, of course. It seems they are being very careful not to pull an Auto Assault- you'll notice careful attention to presentation and rampant advertising. And TR is far more similar to The Game That Must Not Be Named.
To provide any accurate information from those who DO play tabula rasa, it would only be logical to check the forums. Of course (budget saving tactic?) Tabula rasa does not have an official NC funded forums. Go figure.