NCSoft

We reported earlier today that we were seeing signs of some of the rumors that have been around the past day or two coming to fruition over at NCsoft.

I'm happy to report that it appears the "worst case" rumors were exactly that. NCsoft has layed off some developers (21 of them) who were working on undisclosed projects. But, it seems now that it should not affect the current games being supported by the NCsoft Austin Offices.

Our best wishes go out to those that did lose their jobs. But we are indeed relived to hear that it is not as bad as originally thought.

Yesterday rumors started flying around about the possible layoff of many of the Developers in NCsoft's Austin Studio.

NCsoft Austin, home to the Richard Garriott-lead title Tabula Rasa and the free-to-play romp Dungeon Runners, may be in a precarious position today.

The rumor posted at Massively and Joystick appeared to be just that until you examine news from the Korean Times from a few months ago.

The company's chief financial officer Lee Jae-ho said last week that it was inevitable to reduce staff levels at the Texas subsidiary as the "Tabula Rasa" game has proven to be a financial disaster. Lee, however, said the project's leaders will keep their positions.

Then this morning, a quick scouring of some sites leads us to our old friend and NCsoft Dev Scott "Lum" Jennings who posted this to his Twitter page:

is no longer at NCsoft.

While we don't actually have any details to share of an "official" nature at this time. It does appear that at least some of the rumors are true. If not highly coincidental.

Purchasing and playing NCSoft titles such as City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, and Exteel just got easier. Teaming up with InComm, a technology firm that develops markets and distributes stored-value gift and prepaid products. Target, Best Buy and Rite-Aid will be the first stores to carry cards.

Purchasing a card doesn’t just give you game time either, but will give purchasers access to special in-game items!

July 23-July 27th members of the City of Heroes team will be at Comic Con to share in the fun. Stop by the NCsoft booth # 5209 to meet up with Lighthouse, Ex Libris, and Blue Steel from the City of Heroes & City of Villains team.

Be sure to ask for your Pocket D VIP Pass to gain access to the Pocket D Jubilee event scheduled for Saturday July 26th. The VIP Pass will also unlock a special in game item that was selected for this show only.

1UP: Chris, you've just recently taken over as the president of NCSoft's North American branch. This position was previously held for over five years by Robert Garriott.

Chris Chung: Six years, to be exact.

1UP: How does it feel stepping into that spot?

Like father, like son: astronaut's heir heads for the stars

NCSoft have <a href="http://www.plaync.com/us/news/2007/06/chris_mayer_kic.html" target="_blank">published</a> their first ever Dev Corner:<blockquote>Today I was reviewing the state of our operating games (Lineage I & II, City of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars, and Auto Assault) as well as looking over the schedules for our new titles in development. It struck me that NCsoft has been in existence for only ten years (seven in the United States), and that already we’re one of the most successful massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) publishers in the world, if not the most successful.

Perhaps this is why NCSoft recently did those layoffs in their Austin office: second quarter losses:

Korean-headquartered MMO publisher NCsoft has posted its second quarter financial results, showing a marked decline in profits which is largely attributable to a poor market performance for Auto Assault.

For the period ended July 30th, NCsoft posted sales of KRW 85.5 billion (69 million Euro), up 7 per cent on the same period in 2005 and primarily driven by the release of the Guild Wars: Factions expansion pack,

Gamespot reports that NCsoft-Austin has laid off 70 of its staff, though the cuts will apparently not affect the development of Tabula Rasa:

Late yesterday, word began circulating around the Internet that massively multiplayer online game publisher NCsoft underwent a huge round of layoffs, cutting 90 percent of its tech support staff, 80 percent of its GMs, 75 percent of its QA staff, and a number of others.

NCsoft’s Austin business has announced an immediate restructuring within its organization that included the difficult task of reducing members of its workforce. The online games industry is one that is continually changing with the scaling up and down of business based on product launches and product development schedules. Over the past two and a half years NCsoft has launched six major titles into the North American market and has grown with each title launch.