NCSoft
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NCSoft is a South Korean video game developer which has produced many online games, including Lineage, City of Heroes, WildStar, Guild Wars, Aion, Blade & Soul, Exteel and Master X Master. NCSoft is the company that owns ArenaNet. ArenaNet is the maker of Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.
NCSoft West is a division of NCSoft that holds operating responsibilities for North America, Europe, South America, and Australia/New Zealand.
Basic company history[edit]
- March 1997 - NCSoft, a gaming company out of Korea, was founded by T.J. Kim, a business software developer and author of the Korean word processor Hangul. One of the company's first products was NC HTML Editor.
- September 1998 - First major game was Lineage, released in Korea. The success of this game helped the company expand to locations in Taiwan, China, Japan, Europe and the United States.
- May 2000 - The launch of NC Interactive, their North American presence.
- April 28, 2001 - NCSoft created a US subsidiary under the name NC Interactive (based in Austin, Texas) after acquiring Destination Games, headed by Richard Garriott and Robert Garriott. NCSoft programmer Jake Song also moved to Austin in order to stimulate development.
- December 11, 2002 - NCSoft acquires ArenaNet.
- April 28, 2004 - NCSoft's North American operation launched two major MMORPGs, Lineage II and City of Heroes. To date, NCSoft is the only MMORPG publisher to launch two products of this scale on the same day.
- July 19, 2004 - NCSoft Europe was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary with its main office in Brighton, England. They brought City of Heroes to several European countries on February 4, 2005, and established Lineage II service for Europe as well.
- July 11, 2007 - NCSoft had become an exclusive third party Sony developer, and will be developing exclusive games for the Playstation Network, as announced on E3.
- September 10, 2008 - NCSoft announced the formation of NCSoft West, a subsidiary which manages NCSoft's other western organizations, and established its headquarters for that subsidiary in Seattle, Washington.
History associated with the Guild Wars franchise[edit]
- April 22, 2003 - NCSoft and ArenaNet announce Guild Wars, then expected to be released during the second half of 2004.
- April 28, 2005 - Guild Wars (now known as Guild Wars: Prophecies) launched in Europe and North America.
- April 2005 - Guild Wars, nominated for Digital Contents Awards by Ministry of Information and Communication.
- May 2005 - Guild Wars: Prophecies commercial launch in Korea.
- September 22, 2005 - Guild Wars: Prophecies sales reach 1 million units.
- December 2005 - Guild Wars received the Presidential Award at the Digital Contents Awards by Ministry of Information and Communication.
- December 2005 - Guild Wars won the Technical Creation Award in Game Graphics category at 2005 Korean Game Awards.
- January 2006 - Guild Wars: Prophecies commercial launch in Japan.
- January 10, 2006 - NCSoft and ArenaNet announce Guild Wars: Factions
- February 2006 - Guild Wars: Prophecies commercial launch in Taiwan.
- February 2006 - Guild Wars and City of Villains won 'Best Massively Multiplayer Game' together at Interactive Achievement Awards.
- April 28, 2006 - Guild Wars: Factions launch.
- June 19, 2006 - Guild Wars franchise sales reach 2 million units.
- July 18, 2006 - ArenaNet announces Guild Wars: Nightfall
- October 27, 2006 - Guild Wars: Nightfall launch.
- December 13, 2006 - Guild Wars franchise sales reach 3 million units.
- March 27, 2007 - NCSoft and ArenaNet announce Guild Wars 2 and Guild Wars: Eye of the North.
- August 21, 2007 - Guild Wars franchise sales reach 4 million units.
- August 31, 2007 - Guild Wars: Eye of the North launch.
- February 26, 2008 - Guild Wars franchise sales reach 5 million units.
- April 24, 2009 - Guild Wars franchise sales reach 6 million units.
- September 2015 - NCsoft is no longer the publisher of Guild Wars 2.
- February 2019 - ArenaNet got merged with NCsoft's publishing division.
Development studios[edit]
NCSoft is a developer and publisher of online computer games. NCSoft West, the branch of NCSoft with operating responsibility for North America, Europe, South America and Australia/New Zealand, houses its publishing headquarters in Seattle, Washington. The company also owns development studios on the United States West Coast:
- ArenaNet (Bellevue, Washington) – ArenaNet is the creator of one of the most successful MMORPG franchises in the world, Guild Wars.
- Carbine Studios (Aliso Viejo, California) – Carbine Studios was a video game developer founded in 2005 by former members of Blizzard Entertainment. They were the developers of the online role-playing game WildStar.
- Game Production Studio (Seattle, Washington) – The NCSoft Game Production Studio brings products from the NCSoft development teams in Seoul to the West, including Lineage, Lineage II, Exteel and Aion.
- Paragon Studios (Mountain View, California) – Formerly called NCSoft NorCal, Paragon Studios develop the popular City of Heroes franchise.
Titles[edit]
- Aion: The Tower of Eternity (all territories)
- Atrix (Korea)
- Auto Assault (NCSoft West, closed)
- Blade & Soul (Korea)
- City of Heroes, City of Villains (NCSoft West, closed)
- Dragonica (Korea, closed)
- Dungeon Runners (NCSoft West, closed)
- Exteel (Korea, NCSoft West, closed)
- Guild Wars (NCSoft West)
- Guild Wars 2 (NCSoft West)
- Jan Ryu Mon (NCSoft Japan)
- Lineage (all territories)
- Lineage II
- Love Beat
- Master X Master (closed)
- Metal Black
- Point Blank (closed)
- Punch Monster (Korea)
- Smash Star (Korea)
- SP Jam (Korea)
- Steel Dog (Korea)
- Tabula Rasa (NCSoft West, closed)
- Trickster (closed)
- Web-board Games
- Wildstar (closed)
