When it was announced last year that Pearl Abyss America’s former CEO, Jeonghee “JJ” Jin was leaving the company she helped to build, I’ll admit I was pretty stunned. As the face of Pearl Abyss America, JJ made the company much more approachable, while also creating a culture that both celebrated its people as well as the players who make up the Adventurer’s in its flagship Black Desert Online.
So when the announcement came that she was moving from Pearl Abyss to rival NC America (the Western publishing arm of Korean MMO giant, NCSOFT), I had quite a few questions. One major question that lingered was just what exactly was NC America? We had heard of NC America for a while, always seemingly alongside NCSOFT West’s operations, but it was hard to pin down exactly what this offshoot of NCSOFT’s role was within the company.
However, the decision to leave Pearl Abyss America wasn’t an easy one, JJ told MMORPG in an interview late last month.
“It was also kind of unexpected and a very difficult decision for me,” JJ said. She continued, “I did a lot of things at Pearl Abyss America, and [I’m] very proud of my team - ex-team - there.”
JJ says that while she wasn’t looking for something new, conversations kicked off with NCSOFT several months before the decision. NCSOFT, over the last few years, has gone through quite a bit of organizational and leadership changes, layoffs across the company as recently as last October, while in 2023, NCSOFT West was hit with layoffs that saw 20% of its total staff affected.
These changes were made with the idea of potentially strengthening its global publishing capabilities, though it has been far from destitute here in the West thanks to Seattle-based ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, which continues to release stellar expansions including our pick for Best Expansion in 2024, Janthir Wilds.
However, NCSOFT’s own developed titles, especially its legacy brands such as Lineage, Blade & Soul and more have often struggled with a Western audience. This is what JJ was brought on to help bolster: reaching the broader market here in the West for some of the most popular games NCSOFT has developed.
NC America CEO Jeonghee "JJ" Jin
“The NCSOFT self-developed titles were not really doing as well as it hoped or not really meeting NCSOFT’s expectations. So basically, there were a lot of discussions about revamping the Western business and [restrategizing] the company’s Western publishing business. So I was brought [on] to lead those initiatives. And I actually thought it was going to be a very good challenge for me, for my career, and also I thought it was going to be a very meaningful challenge to me, because NCSOFT is a very unique company.”
That uniqueness comes from NCSOFT’s pedigree as one of the first-ever online game developers, launching Lineage in 1998, only a year after NCSOFT officially formed. Since then, the company has released incredibly popular and influential MMOs over the years, finding incredible success across Korea and in other Asian markets. However, it has always struggled to find a solid foothold here in the West, despite a dedicated following of hardcore players. This popularity, especially with Lineage, has helped NCSOFT boast over 200 million registered players across all of their games, with the vast bulk coming from the Lineage series.
It’s important to note that NC America is not handling the operations of ArenaNet or publishing Guild Wars 2 here in the West. That is still technically being handled by NCSOFT West, which is a separate entity from NC America (confused yet?). As far as the relationship between NC America and ArenaNet, JJ likens it to a “brother and sister” relationship.
“Both of us are under NCSOFT and NCSOFT’s brand. And we’re the only two entities operating our games in the West under NCSOFT. So I think for now, we are not publishing ArenaNet titles, but we are just now sharing some insights and information and ArenaNet is taking care of the Guild Wars franchise on their own.”
Yet this arrangement still bred confusion about what NC America is and what is going on with NCSOFT West. The most important thing to know, however, is that moving forward, NC America is handling the publishing for the Korean developer here in the West, with the exception of ArenaNet’s portfolio.
Blade & Soul Neo, Among Other Games
Late last year, NCSoft announced it was investing in two studios outside their normal MMO wheelhouse, a third-person time-survival shooter made by Korean studio Mistil Games called Time Takers, and Band of Crusaders, a strategy RPG set during the European Middle Ages made by Polish developer Virtual Academy. These partnerships show that NC America, and NCSOFT by extension, aren’t simply content to rest on the laurels of their previously established brands, but instead are willing to invest in new ideas and studios that have the potential to break through, especially in the Western market. JJ says that there could be even more on the horizon as the months and year goes by.
“We are trying to bring more titles from NCSOFT, and one of the goals is also a diversified portfolio. And that’s the same with the headquarters because we’re so well known for the MMORPG genre, I think that was a little like a double-edged sword for us.”
However, while diversifying the portfolio here is a good thing, it’s not going to stop NCSOFT and NC America from doubling down on what it does great: MMOs. As such, this year we’ll see the release of a remastered version of Blade & Soul, called Blade & Soul Neo.
Launched in Korea a few months back, the remaster has seen quite a bit of adoption since its release, according to JJ, and part of announcing this release was to start to bring something to the West that they could do rather quickly.
“Blade & Soul Neo was actually launched a couple of months ago in Korea first. And actually, the Blade and Soul Neo fans in Korea are loving it, and we also play Blade and Soul Neo here at NC America. We also love it. So we wanted to work as fast as we can to bring the title to our audience as well.”
One of the challenges facing many Korean MMOs here in the West is the just sheer difference in consumer expectations when it comes to microtransactions and what those microtransactions can provide. We generally abhor anything here in the West that feels even borderline what is perceived to be pay-to-win, while there are some elements that are just normal and expected in Asian markets. Balancing the two has always been a tough assignment, though it should be noted that JJ has a history of helping a large company navigate such struggles.
Black Desert Online was accused heavily of being overly microtransaction-heavy and leaning almost headfirst into pay-to-win territory when it first launched in the West eight years ago. However, over those years, I noticed the pay-to-win elements here in the West were slowly reduced, with those microtransactions often being cosmetic or simply convenience items. It’s hard to say it’s completely gone, and the amount of microtransactions available in Black Desert has certainly not gone down over the years. Still, one thing JJ’s team at Pearl Abyss America did, in my view, was help headquarters better understand what the audience here wanted out of its in-game store.
She has the same task ahead of her here at NC America, especially as more titles are being published in Korea first. While NCSOFT’s most recent MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, is being published by Amazon here in the West, with that team taking the lead at formulating the microtransactions to be more akin to what we’d expect out here, JJ’s team had to do this with Blade & Soul Neo.
For gameplay, JJ says there isn’t much being changed in Neo from its Korean version. However, she does tell me that her team is paying close attention to the business model, especially whether it’ll be accepted here in the West.
“We are not changing a lot of things for Blade & Soul Neo. When we played Blade & Soul Neo here in the office, I think the dev team really wanted to make it work well for the global audience. So I think those were the learnings from our past experience. Unfortunately, some of our titles - or most of our titles - had a pay-to-win reputation. So there’s a big awareness now about that internally. I think even for the business models, the devs wanted to make sure this is better, this is going to be well accepted in the West. So we’re learning from our live service experience.”
As a result of those internal playtests, JJ says her team didn’t think a lot of changes needed to be made, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be changes made in the future as it heads towards launch. NC America doesn’t currently have a launch date set, but there are certainly some interesting features to look forward to, especially if you’ve played the original.
Blade & Soul Neo will feature remastered animations and graphics, boosting the visual quality thanks to a shift to Unreal Engine 4, while combat customization looks to be expanded versus the original. However, for many fans like myself who long for that fluid motion and gravity-defying traversal that helps to define the Wuxia experience, Infinite Windwalk will be available from the start.
It’s exciting to think about, and hopefully, we won’t have too much longer to wait to get hands-on with the MMO when it comes to the West this year.
Moving Forward
Despite it’s regional-sounding name, NC America isn’t handling just the Americas. The publishing arm will be responsible for regions such as Europe, both North and South America, as well as the Oceania, Australia and New Zealand markets. While the team might be based out of Irvine, California, that’s a tall task - again, something JJ seems uniquely equipped to help lead, having been in charge of much the same scope at Pearl Abyss America (though, it should be noted, PA has a European division that took care of things over there as well).
NC America will also have to work with some partners who publish NCSOFT games in the West already, such as the aforementioned Amazon Games for Throne and Liberty, as well as a few European publishers with NCSOFT titles under their purview. However, it presents an interesting opportunity to truly grow those global ambitions NCSOFT has with its games, but it’s not going to be easy, especially as hardcore MMOs, especially legacy MMO brands like Lineage can be hard to get modern MMO fans to give the time of day.
Working on Lineage, Blade & Soul and AION, just continuing to offer these legacy games can be quite limiting. The MMO genre, according to JJ, is still quite “niche,” and the company needs to do a good job of reaching players where they are.
“There is a limitation as an old IP, we can definitely still work on growing them and continuing to serve the community that loves that IP, but as I said, we’re really trying to diversify our portfolio. Not meaning to simply bring in more projects to make more money, but there are so many other players; the MMORPG genre is kind of a niche segment, and most players don’t just play one title or stick to one genre. There are some game players I know who only play sports games, only play a certain genre. But most players have their favorite shooter, their favorite MMORPG, where they go back whenever there is a big update. They also play mobile games.
“So I think we have to see that possibility just to serve our target segment better. We want to provide more; offer more games and more games that serve our community better.”