This was posted on a FB group. Might be useful?
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/09/129_117289.html
Ouch, apparently it's not even doing that well on the Korean market anymore - and I doubt it'll really compete with the big titles here too.
Ah, now that is an interesting article :)
Coincidentally, I spent a fair while last night going through articles from The Korea Times myself, but I missed that one - good catch!
I had been looking for mentions of City of Heroes but there wasn't anything current, and certainly no mention of its closure. Evidently we register about a 0.000001 on the Korean domestic news Richter scale. But that in itself is interesting because it means the news stories published in the Korean Times are introspective, and that gives us a window into how NCSoft and Nexon are perceived at home.
The most salient point to take from that B&S article is about the subscription model - B&S is a monthly sub, a model that NCSoft have traditionally used. However, their new alliance with Nexon speaks volumes - Nexon were the pioneers of F2P.
I found several interesting articles about NCSoft, Nexon, the online v mobile market, pricing strategies and possible directions for the future. I was thinking of slapping the links in a new thread somewhere, but here seems ideal now :)
Party's over for game industry (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/08/123_117031.html) - Aug 9th 2012
Nexon accused of playing it safe (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/08/325_117086.html) - Aug 9th 2012
Game developers eye mobile market (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/sports/2012/08/182_116409.html) - Aug 1st 2012
Game market shifting gears (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/10/133_116330.html) - July 31st 2012
Blade & Soul beats Diablo 3 (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/08/129_114526.html) - July 5th 2012
NCsoft braces for massive restructuring (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/09/129_113363.html) - June 19th 2012
NCsoft set to crush Blizzard (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/tech_view.asp?newsIdx=113282&categoryCode=129) - June 18th 2012
Foreign IBs positive on Nexon's NCsoft takeover (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/09/123_113156.html) - June 15th 2012
Speculation mounts over NCsoft (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2012/07/182_112965.html) - June 13th 2012
Nexon, NC join hands to rule game industry (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/08/133_112758.html) - June 10th 2012
Some "hmm..." information in those, definitely. Lot of good brains here - what do you reckon to the unfolding story in the links above?
Stocks have always been kind of a mystery to me, personally, but it does seem to be something influenced by public perception. NCSoft's business practices, in general, could be in question within the business community, regardless of CoH, or sort of more because it's part of a larger trend. That seems to be what I'm seeing as people here raise questions that get me looking more at NCSoft as a whole, rather than just looking at the one game I play.
Many of their games have suffered from slow addition of new content and updates, while new (or new to us) games are in development. CoH has been the exception, for the most part, though some of the things felt a little bit rushed, or even just thrown out to us because they had to have something to give us each month. Nothing was half-assed, though. Everything that came out had been worked on by someone who seriously, honestly cared about what they were doing. I have not seen GW2, beyond trailers and promotional stuff, and then not very much, but most of the NCSoft stable always struck my as pretty lackluster and sometimes interchangeable.
I don't think that our efforts are affecting their stock, but it is fun to imagine. However, if their "shifting of focus" is to kill the one project they own that not only is original but still is the standard by which its competitors are measured, that's going to raise eyebrows.
The article linked in this post
Quote from: rae on October 10, 2012, 10:09:33 AM
This was posted on a FB group. Might be useful?
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/09/129_117289.html
...has one minor problem: League of Legends is put out by "Riot" Games, not "Raw."
</quibble>
Quote from: Segev on October 10, 2012, 12:12:43 PM
The article linked in this post...has one minor problem: League of Legends is put out by "Riot" Games, not "Raw."
</quibble>
And the Riot peeps are -righteous-, by all accounts. <.< >.>