NCSoft to seek recovery momentum with open-world game

South Korea’s gaming giant NCSoft Corp. is set to develop an open-world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) while launching a new title this week to boost its sluggish earnings.

In video games, an open world is a virtual world where the player can approach goals freely, as opposed to a world with a more linear and structured gameplay. Famous games in the open category include Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.’s Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series, which generated $8.9 billion by 2023, and Microsoft Corp.’s Minecraft.

NCSoft is hiring developers for a science fiction (SF) MMORPG in the category of a post-apocalyptic background, which describes a setting after the destruction of the world, according to IT industry sources on Tuesday.

Post-apocalyptic games are as popular as open-world titles among players in the US and Europe.

TO TARGET GAME PLAYERS IN THE US, EUROPE

The developer of the blockbuster Lineage series aims to expand its presence in the West with the new open-world MMORPG, industry sources in Seoul said.

“We will look for opportunities to make a foray into Europe,” said NCSoft co-CEO Park Byungmoo at Gamescom 2024, the world's largest computer games trade fair, on Aug. 21 in Cologne, Germany.

An open-world game requires advanced technology as it demands diverse content to bolster users’ freedom while delicately embracing virtual worlds.

NCSoft plans to elevate players’ freedom by integrating various activities such as hunting into the game, and applying the high-quality graphics technology used for LLL, its shooting game for PCs and consoles to be released next year.

BREAKTHROUGH

The gaming behemoth needs new box-office hit titles to lessen its reliance on the Lineage series and revive sluggish earnings. Its operating profit tumbled 75% to 8.8 billion won ($6.6 million) in the second quarter from the same period a year earlier.

Its recently launched games have yet to boost earnings.

Throne and Liberty (TL), its MMORPG to be sold overseas through Amazon Games starting Oct. 1, was launched in Korea in December but failed to attract local users.

On Wednesday, NCSoft is scheduled to stop the service for Puzzup Amitoi, a puzzle game released last September. Battle Crush, a fighting game launched in June 2023, has yet to achieve remarkable success.

The same day, the company plans to launch Hoyeon, a collectible MMORPG based on the intellectual property of its Wuxia-themed MMORPG Blade & Soul.

Through Hoyeon, it aims to ease criticism over the Lineage series’ profit model of loot boxes, a kind of in-game lucky draw.

“Hoyeon is expected to serve as a stepping stone for those biased against NCSoft,” said Ko Kihwan, the company’s executive producer captain.

Write to Ju-Hyun Lee and Dong-Jin Hwang at deep@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.