MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood recently caught up with David Reid, the President of newly minted NC West. The formation of this new company from NCsoft has been the starting point of a number of runors about the future of NCsoft Austin. In this interview, Reid speaks about the new company, and the future of games like Tabula Rasa and Dungeon Runners.

Last week, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to David Reid, the new President of Publishing at NC West, the recently announced spinoff company from NCsoft.

There has been a great deal of confusion and speculation coming out of this most recent announcement. Even looking around at various forums and even some news sites, reports and rumors of the closure of the NCsoft studio in Austin, among others, have been circulating.

The best guess for the heart of the circulation of these rumors is the line in the company’s original press release which read: “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.”

This seems to have been mis-interpreted (at least according to Reid) by some readers and members of the media alike.

Read the article here.

Still doesn't explain why they laid off their Lineage 2 executive producer as well as the Community Manager. I mean, one day they are there... next.. no so "there".

And with no "official announcment".

I also understand that some other cm's were laid off as well along with many others.

Gl NCsoft ;)

I just hope this isnt double talk so they dont lose what they do have going now as far as the games that are slipping slowly.  As far as DR and Exteel goes, this should have never been considered to be on a console platform,  not only are they a bit behind in graphics but they dont have the substance to stay long term on console. I honestly believe that if they intend for TR to become successful , maybe they should take the GW model for the approach of the subscription of what would be lack there of. Its already dropped in price so this shouldnt be such a far fetched idea. Work on expansions and free content and then add item mall of some sort.  I guarantee if it was buy the box , free for life lots more would play.

Im very interested in this NC West idea and admit it makes sense especially given their success with a team like ANet and i believe when they mentioned who was head of this Jeff Strain and a few others were mentioned from Anet. Tbh its kinda ironic that 3 of the top ppl are former Anet employees, maybe this was their way of showing that gratitude. But now we know that their will be more expressive power for Anet come GW2 and future projects.

I just want to add this last bit, did anyone catch the interview part where they mentioned Xbox, i could have swore that they signed exclusive rights with Sony to develop games for PSP and PS3, maybe they just meant MMO, but the way the original news release made it sound , it was all games. And in another interview Chris mentioned that they were not looking at the xbox as a possible platform they were willing to get into. [think this is a huge mistake still but hey these guys know more than us right.] MS might be tough to get along with and certify the content but atleast they do check it thoroughly before its put on marketplace.

Anyway GL to NC WEST

Originally posted by jaigaia

I just hope this isnt double talk so they dont lose what they do have going now as far as the games that are slipping slowly.  As far as DR and Exteel goes, this should have never been considered to be on a console platform,  not only are they a bit behind in graphics but they dont have the substance to stay long term on console. I honestly believe that if they intend for TR to become successful , maybe they should take the GW model for the approach of the subscription of what would be lack there of. Its already dropped in price so this shouldnt be such a far fetched idea. Work on expansions and free content and then add item mall of some sort.  I guarantee if it was buy the box , free for life lots more would play.

Im very interested in this NC West idea and admit it makes sense especially given their success with a team like ANet and i believe when they mentioned who was head of this Jeff Strain and a few others were mentioned from Anet. Tbh its kinda ironic that 3 of the top ppl are former Anet employees, maybe this was their way of showing that gratitude. But now we know that their will be more expressive power for Anet come GW2 and future projects.

I just want to add this last bit, did anyone catch the interview part where they mentioned Xbox, i could have swore that they signed exclusive rights with Sony to develop games for PSP and PS3, maybe they just meant MMO, but the way the original news release made it sound , it was all games. And in another interview Chris mentioned that they were not looking at the xbox as a possible platform they were willing to get into. [think this is a huge mistake still but hey these guys know more than us right.] MS might be tough to get along with and certify the content but atleast they do check it thoroughly before its put on marketplace.

Anyway GL to NC WEST

I just used thje XBox as an example. Nothing specific was mentioned.

when it comes to NCsoft i can only think of one thing...one HOPE! and it's not Aion...

Blade and Soul

http://bns.plaync.co.kr/

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by jaigaia

I just hope this isnt double talk so they dont lose what they do have going now as far as the games that are slipping slowly.  As far as DR and Exteel goes, this should have never been considered to be on a console platform,  not only are they a bit behind in graphics but they dont have the substance to stay long term on console. I honestly believe that if they intend for TR to become successful , maybe they should take the GW model for the approach of the subscription of what would be lack there of. Its already dropped in price so this shouldnt be such a far fetched idea. Work on expansions and free content and then add item mall of some sort.  I guarantee if it was buy the box , free for life lots more would play.

Im very interested in this NC West idea and admit it makes sense especially given their success with a team like ANet and i believe when they mentioned who was head of this Jeff Strain and a few others were mentioned from Anet. Tbh its kinda ironic that 3 of the top ppl are former Anet employees, maybe this was their way of showing that gratitude. But now we know that their will be more expressive power for Anet come GW2 and future projects.

I just want to add this last bit, did anyone catch the interview part where they mentioned Xbox, i could have swore that they signed exclusive rights with Sony to develop games for PSP and PS3, maybe they just meant MMO, but the way the original news release made it sound , it was all games. And in another interview Chris mentioned that they were not looking at the xbox as a possible platform they were willing to get into. [think this is a huge mistake still but hey these guys know more than us right.] MS might be tough to get along with and certify the content but atleast they do check it thoroughly before its put on marketplace.

Anyway GL to NC WEST

 

I just used thje XBox as an example. Nothing specific was mentioned.

 

 i did kinda wonder about this as ive been following NC very closely since the original Sony announcement especially but thank u for clearing that up though. Ill still stand behind their decision to go sony over both markets is a mistake though, and others plz dont flame me for that thought. Do the math and see the online community numbers and it would make more sense to you. As i do play on both 360 and the ps3 so i do have a little insight on this

They layoffs don't bother me from an overall perspective.  Sure, seeing someone get canned especially in the crappy American economy sucks for them and I hope they can find new jobs soon.  From an overall perspecitve, these layoffs appear to be small things to prepare for all of the smaller subdivisions to be under one roof of NC West.

Hmm... I've always liked NCsoft for publishing Guild Wars. Didn't like the games they made themselves, but who knows... They sound pretty ambitious there, I'm hoping we might see the next big MMO coming from there. Too bad they didn't say anything about their future 'projects' as in, genre, target players, etc. Yay, another company which I'll have to google every week...

BTW; quite off-topic. But somebody here said something about that other korean NCsoft game. If I recall correctly, miniskirts were forbidden in korea (not sure wether it was north or south), but daim... Some of those female characters didn't even wear miniskirts. 0.0

Originally posted by erandur

Hmm... I've always liked NCsoft for publishing Guild Wars. Didn't like the games they made themselves, but who knows... They sound pretty ambitious there, I'm hoping we might see the next big MMO coming from there. Too bad they didn't say anything about their future 'projects' as in, genre, target players, etc. Yay, another company which I'll have to google every week...

BTW; quite off-topic. But somebody here said something about that other korean NCsoft game. If I recall correctly, miniskirts were forbidden in korea (not sure wether it was north or south), but daim... Some of those female characters didn't even wear miniskirts. 0.0

LOL "that other Korean Game" is like saying "that other American MMO" -- there are a *lot* of them.

Probably the most popular Korean MMO is Lineage II which recently celebrated it's 4th anniversary.  L2 is still very much alive and was, arguably, the best PvP MMO until the release of Warhammer Online.

L2 female characters, particularly dark elves, whose bodies and "armor" are highly suggestive (many say excessively so) ,,, the female dark elves look like they were inspired and drawn from the wet dreams of 16 year old boys ,,, in game, when those dark elf female characters cast a spell, their breasts jiggle O.o

I don't quite know what to make of this.

It's worth saying; this reassurance they're giving about both Tabula Rasa and NC in general is very similar to what we heard right before Auto Assault shut down. So is, best I can tell, the financial situation.

Still, one cannot just be pessimistic about everything. my [b]HOPE[/b] is that they realized korean-y titles like Exteel weren't working out in America and Europe and just decided to give them their own division.

Unfortunately, no amount of my speculation can provide insight on this. I personally don't trust NC, but I try not to be biased about it- and it seems like not much but biased arguments can be drawn from this. So I guess we'll just find out soon™. (I meant to make Soon link to this, but MMORPG.com's linking tool is weird. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/dec/HQ_07283_Mars_Scout_Missions.html)