NCsoft properties, unite! Press release.

[Mark]

By your powers combined, NCsoft Int, Austin, EU, and Arenanet have become...NCsoft West! Press release time, baby. Previously discussed in this thread. What does it all mean? Hopefully someone from NCsoft itself can drop by and fill us in. I hope it's a positive move for everyone involved with AION.

NCsoft Announces Formation of “NC West”

CEO Taek Jin Kim Promotes Chris Chung, Jeff Strain, David Reid, and Patrick Wyatt

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.

Chris Chung, previously CEO of NC Interactive, has a long history with NCsoft. He began his tenure at NCsoft’s ArenaNet® studio, where he managed that studio’s business and helped launch the multi-platinum selling Guild Wars franchise. Chung later went on to become the chief publishing officer for NCsoft’s Seoul headquarters. Prior to NCsoft, Chung spent more than five years at Microsoft and later co-founded a marketing research firm. As CEO of NC West, Chung will continue to report directly to NCsoft CEO Taek Jin (TJ) Kim.

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us. His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

Jeff Strain was formerly the president and co-founder of ArenaNet, a company he formed with Patrick Wyatt and Mike O’Brien when they left senior roles at Blizzard Entertainment in 2000. Additionally, Strain held the position of executive producer of Guild Wars 2™ prior to taking this new role. Strain will report directly to Chung and manage all NC West development studios across all existing and future products. Strain will also direct the production of NCsoft’s Asian-developed titles for NC West territories.

David Reid began with NCsoft in March 2008 as vice-president, marketing for North America. Reid came to NCsoft from Turner Broadcasting’s GameTap, where he served as vice-president, marketing. Prior to that, he worked at Microsoft as director of global platform marketing, where he launched the Xbox 360. In his new role, Reid will continue to report to Chung and will lead franchise management, marketing, public relations, sales, and customer support for NC West.

As a founder of ArenaNet, Patrick Wyatt led the development of the network and server technologies for the Guild Wars franchise, and directed the architecture and deployment of ArenaNet's global game network infrastructure. Before co-founding ArenaNet with Strain and O'Brien, Wyatt was the vice president of research and development for Blizzard Entertainment, where he led programming for the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. As CTO for NC West, Wyatt will report to Chung and will focus on platform technology development, network operations, and systems engineering.

“There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer online market,” said Chris Chung. “By combining the strength of our US and European teams, NCsoft has the best global infrastructure to win in new and existing markets, and the best developer talent capable of creating blockbuster MMO franchises.”

About NC West
NC West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, a world leading publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games including Lineage/Lineage II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa®, and Aion®: The Tower of Eternity™. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.PlayNC.com.

NCsoft, ArenaNet, Lineage, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, Tabula Rasa, Aion, The Tower of Eternity and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

[solidbrim]

Seems like an progressive move.

[justamemory]

“We are confident that by combining our subsidiaries into a unified global organization under Chris Chung’s leadership, NC West will become a more powerful force to be reckoned with in the western MMO market,” said TJ Kim. “Chris has become a guiding force within our company and has been extremely successful at every position he has held with us. His detailed first-hand knowledge of all aspects of our business is invaluable and will help establish NC West as a global leader.”

guess we can't say they don't care about the western market

[Kan0n]

I guess I shouldn't be as worried now, with that in place seems like a positive move for the company.

[Mark]

Aside from people potentially losing jobs.

[justamemory]

Originally Posted by Mark

Aside from people potentially losing jobs.

'tis the nature of the beast

Optimization + Money + Humans = Optimization + Money - Humans

[dalin]

^^ there is always that possibility, but this really sounds like a positive move (company wide)...

kudos, and i cant wait to see how things pan out!

[Destrado]

According to this article on Kotaku , there are 12 potential cuts in the Austin division and 58 potential cuts in the European division.

My first real concern when I read about this was that Aion development would be pushed back some, but from the looks of it they're actually concentrating more on their bigger titles (e.g. Aion). So all in all I think this is a positive situation for all of us

[Valentina]

Uh Okay? Lol

[dalin]

the references to NCSoft layoffs have been surfacing for months now... hard to discern fact from fiction...

Hope that Patrick Wyatt will bring his experience at ArenaNet to the general market

[Knite]

Interesting news. A new headquarters in Seattle, too? It seems interesting to me all the layoffs happening, yet they've expanded, built new studios, etc quite a bit the last couple of years.

[newpick]

time for cool new logo? yeah buy-outs and mergers are only fun for stockholders

[DemonXaphan]

Yeah i see this consolidation of key exec's to one location to run the rest of the subsidiaries a key move in their efforts to further expand the base.

[Mark]

Seattle's further away than Austin. ;_;