There has been alot of speculation in the last few days as to the future of Guild Wars 2 and Aion in light of the recently announced closing of NCSoft's UK office. I found this article that i hope helps explains things. While I am not an NCSoft employee...I think this article explains alot. And besides...if NCSoft starts going belly up...Sony would jump on their game rights fast LOL
www.massively.com/2009/02/11/official-details-on-the-ncsoft-europe-layoffs/
Considering the incredible number of players that got into the Aion beta, i think that Ncsoft is not really in trouble, however since aion is getting worked on 100% in korea and GW 2 is being made in the us (same as gw 2 I think) I dont think keeping an office in the UK is on their top priority list when the cash they got from selling all those copies of GW1.
All companies are facing hard times and nc soft is prolly low on funds atm. However as soon as they start preorders on AIon and Gw 2 (preorders were extremely popular in gw 1) the cash will flow in.
The worst that could happen is a release in US/euro of Aion a month or two after the korean one. Because Aion is very likely to become a new religion in Korea.
Thu Feb 12 2009 9:50AM ReportNCSoft announced that they are dropping funding on any small projects and are strictly concentrating on Blockbuster mmos after the failure of Tabula Rasa. AION is developed in Korea, and Guild Wars 2 by NCSoft West. I am pretty sure NCSoft West got an influx of developers rescently.
I think NCSofts plan to consilidate its workforce is a wise one. Operating a building can cost the same salary as 10 employees or more. Not to mention the money spent on travel expenses.
Thu Feb 12 2009 11:53PM ReportWhat Cleffy says is fact. And they are moving people from NCsoft UK to NCsoft west. Dropping small projects and going just for blockbusters like Aion, GW2, B&S, L3.
Fri Feb 13 2009 1:43AM Reportfrom Regina:
You've probably all heard the game media’s reports about NCsoft West restructuring, and so you've probably got a lot of questions about how this affects Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2, and community support. The changes at NCsoft West basically mean we at ArenaNet will have more control over our games and game-related services like community, localization, and QA. With these departments located in-house, ArenaNet will be better positioned to provide world-class quality games and service to our players.
In terms of the Guild Wars Community Team, the NCsoft West changes mean all Guild Wars community managers will work right here at the ArenaNet studio. Unfortunately, in the short term this may mean that Guild Wars Community Team will be a little short-staffed. We will try to ensure the impact is minimal. In the long run, having all ArenaNet community managers at the studio will improve the flow of information between community managers and developers, as well as between community managers and players.
Guild Wars 2 development won’t be affected by the changes at NCsoft West, and in the long term it will mean good things for the quality and support we’re able to give Guild Wars 2.
Fri Feb 13 2009 2:41AM ReportI thnk they are wise in this current economy to consolidate as they have...and work on the projects they know will almost guaranteed to be hits. Once the money starts coming in from those titles, the smaller projects will most likely get a second look
Sat Feb 14 2009 5:31PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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