South Korea-based video gaming giant NCSOFT Corp. is pouring big money into expanding its Aliso Viejo operations in a global effort to bring a roster of popular role-playing fantasy games to the West under a new business model.
The local unit, NCSOFT West, has hired more than 100 engineers, game designers and corporate personnel this year, including a new executive team to lead publishing, mobile game and corporate development, finance, marketing, and public relations efforts.
The plan calls for adding 100 more employees to its U.S. operation in the next six months or so, with Aliso Viejo and the unit’s headquarters and newly established mobile gaming division in San Mateo in line for most of the growth.
“These are highly talented, highly paid individuals that are coming in,” said John Burns, who was hired about a year ago as senior vice president of publishing and business services in charge of the U.S. and European regions.
The recent growth spurt has NCSOFT West and subsidiary Carbine Studios taking up about 30,000 square feet at its operations on Enterprise Way where they occupy parts of two adjacent buildings.
NCSOFT West employs about 700 companywide, at offices in San Mateo; Bellevue, Wash.; Austin, Texas; the U.K.; and Aliso Viejo, where 250 work.
NCSOFT Corp. has an employment base of about 3,000, including some 2,300 based at its headquarters in Seoul. It’s traded on the KRX Korean Exchange and posted revenue of about $715 million last year and net income of nearly $194 million.
Strategic Shift
The U.S. unit, founded in 2000, generates less than a quarter of the company’s total revenue, a percentage that could swing in the coming years as the company markets its most popular game, “WildStar,” in North America and Europe and shifts the pricing model from a monthly subscription of $15 to free-to-play. The company also is ditching the $20-to-$100 price to buy the game. Revenue comes from in-game merchandise sales.
“The West is a very large strategic initiative for our Korean headquarters” due to growth potential, Burns told the Business Journal in mid-June in a private meeting room during the Electronic Entertainment Expo video game convention in downtown Los Angeles. “They definitely want to see that revenue split grow significantly from the West, which is what we’re working on.”
Some early indicators are pointing in the right direction.
NCSOFT West has attracted “hundreds of thousands” of players who have signed up to beta test “ WildStar,” which was developed by Carbine Studios. The game developer was established in 2005.
The sci-fi massively multiplayer online game allows friends and strangers to meet up on adventures and challenges on fictional planet Nexus. It had one of the biggest industry launches a year ago and will have several new features in the updated free version.
“We think there’s great ways for us to monetize this game and bring more players into the game,” said NCSOFT’s senior vice president of human resources, Chauncey Gammage, who’s overseeing the U.S. buildout plan and heads Carbine Studios. “We’re really looking to increase the population of the game into the millions.”
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s World of Warcraft is the most played massively multiplayer online role-playing game, also known as MMORPGs, with 5.6 million subscribers through the June quarter.
The “WildStar” relaunch in the first quarter will usher in the first of several initiatives under way at NCSOFT, which plans to bring popular franchise “Blade & Soul” to the North American and European markets. Those titles, along with its “Lineage 1” and “Lineage 2,” are among the most lucrative games in the genre of MMORPGs.
It will also shift its games from PCs to consoles and other platforms, and develop new titles for mobile devices.
“That’s what’s really at the core of our new strategy,” Burns said. “We’re on an acceleration path as a company in the West.”
