NCSoft Stockwatch

[Power Gamer]

WoW ... In spaaaaaaaaaace! With fluffy bunny girls.

And maybe some more recent tech to make it more action oriented.

lol

Exactly my point!

[Cailyn Alaynn]

You don't need to buy all the shares to have controlling interest in a company.  Usually 30-35% would be enough.

That's still in the area of 900 Million.

[LaughingAlex]

WoW ... In spaaaaaaaaaace! With fluffy bunny girls.

And maybe some more recent tech to make it more action oriented.

Exactly why I was left thinking "Haven't we seen this before for the millionth time?".

MMORPGs....to me, it's like i'm the employer and i'm asking the hopeful "what separates you from your competition?".  And the MMORPG says "Well, I still require healers and I'm just like.......WoW!  You like........WoW, don't you?"  Even said in a way that, creeps me out....

No, I am not an employer in real life.

[Teikiatsu]

That's still in the area of 900 Million.

Quick!  To Kickstarter!

[rebel 1812]

Quick!  To Kickstarter!

or to the banks or selling shares for a shell corporation with the intent to buy controlling interest in ncsoft.

[Rejolt]

or to the banks or selling shares for a shell corporation with the intent to buy controlling interest in ncsoft.

Sorry, I'd rather start a company from scratch and say: "Build me Heroes of the City and play like the modern version of CoH for 50 million. I'll then spend 30 million to advertise for it, 50 million to insure it stays running for 10+ years and the rest I'll cure world hunger."

I love CoH but if I could raise a billion I'm buying everyone on the forums a new gaming PC, a steak dinner and curing cancer with the rest of it.

[FatherXmas]

WildStar quickly got a rep that a lot of content is locked up behind hard core raids.  Just hard core players can not support a subscription MMO.  I know hard core players are the most boisterous on forums but the pool of MMO players are tapped out, so it's either stealing, attracting them during their churn or expanding the potential player base by making it easier.  Also a lot of those teen/20 somethings that made WoW as big as it was 10 years ago are now starting families and simply don't have the time for "hard core" raiding anymore.

I played WildStar during the last open beta and it was alright but aspects seem overly complex.  The only innovative, if you call it that, thing they added to the MMO experience is the lack of tab targeting by highlighting where your attack will so you can turn/charge to get the critter in range.

As for the stock price, we're talking 5 year low.  China isn't the loot cave NCSOFT promoted it to be with B&S and GW2 but they are bringing in money, just not enormous amounts.  WildStar didn't have the launch that Guild Wars 2 had in terms of income, but that's the difference between P2P and B2P.  Also MMO players in the west are now conditioned to wait for the conversion to F2P (thank you SW:TOR).

So to summarize, China isn't bringing in $100+ million USD a year, WildStar isn't the next WoW, no new MMOs on the horizon, just a D3 like Lineage Eternal and a MOBA like Master x Master.  And in Korea the government is still trying to gum up the whole online gaming industry there.

And from what I heard the NA/EU version of B&S will be based on the edited Chinese version and not the Korean/Japan lewd and lascivious version.

[JanessaVR]

And from what I heard the NA/EU version of B&S will be based on the edited Chinese version and not the Korean/Japan lewd and lascivious version.

Ugh.  Not that I was inclined to try it anyway, but I despise that kind of "kid-friendly" censorship on general principles.  If there's an NC-17 version of the game out there, then darn it, that's what gamers should get, not some Disneyfied knock-off version.

[Aggelakis]

Ugh.  Not that I was inclined to try it anyway, but I despise that kind of "kid-friendly" censorship on general principles.  If there's an NC-17 version of the game out there, then darn it, that's what gamers should get, not some Disneyfied knock-off version.

Personally, I like the look of the Chinese version. The lemon boobs are gone, for one thing. I don't know about you, but I don't know ANY women who have giant lemons stuffed under their shirts.

[Thunder Glove]

The edited version is hardly "Disney-fied" or "kid friendly".  It's just slightly more stylish and slightly less blatant. (Emphasis on "slightly")

I don't plan to play it, but after watching this video, I like the "censored" versions of most of the outfits better.  (I can't stand their "look at my boobs" pose or the little dance they're doing as an idle pose, though, in both versions)

[Brightfires]

I just can't get past the whole "boob-a-palooza mature body with the face of an eight year-old" thing. It's creepy, no matter how she's dressed. 

[JanessaVR]

Personally, I like the look of the Chinese version. The lemon boobs are gone, for one thing. I don't know about you, but I don't know ANY women who have giant lemons stuffed under their shirts.

That bad?  Ouch.  Maybe the edited version would be better.

[Jorge Firebomb]

So out of curiosity I checked out that linked video for the "censored" vs "uncensored" versions of the outfits, and wow the Korean versions are pretty terrible. I mean, unless the game is a prostitute simulator? Then the outfits would be about what you would expect. If those ladies are supposed to be fighting anything in those outfits, yeah that just wouldn't work. The Chinese versions are also fairly unrealistic, but a few of them actually look like something you could theoretically move around in at least.

Besides, all characters should be wearing spandex anyway.

[Codewalker]

The outfits in the Korean version make no sense, to fight in or not. Who wears copious amounts of material on their arms and legs but leaves a big hole cut out on their torso leaving just underwear (late-night lingerie aside)? It just looks... bizarre.

A tiny bikini that their boobs would pop out of at the slightest movement also seems to be a very poor choice to try to fight in.

Maybe in the expansion they'll all get slaughtered by the invading hordes wearing practical armor.

[JanessaVR]

The outfits in the Korean version make no sense, to fight in or not. Who wears copious amounts of material on their arms and legs but leaves a big hole cut out on their torso leaving just underwear (late-night lingerie aside)? It just looks... bizarre.

A tiny bikini that their boobs would pop out of at the slightest movement also seems to be a very poor choice to try to fight in.

Maybe in the expansion they'll all get slaughtered by the invading hordes wearing practical armor.

I've always said it was easy to spot the 14 year-old boys in CoH - they had female avatars dressed in bikinis with max-slider breasts. 

Personally, I actually did have body armor outfits for my characters (for when in combat) as well as some sensible casual clothing for when I was just hanging out or marketeering.

[dwturducken]

I'm 42, and every one of my female characters (except for the "child" cheerleader with the machine gun) had max boobs and max butt. However, I also had about half a dozen characters that I took well into the 30s on level whose costumes made the Ambiguously Gay Duo look butch. And one who was a reasonable facsimile of Captain Sunshine. I was an equal opportunity offender...

[microc]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/11/13/ncsofts-third-quarter-report-is-glowing-wildstars-revenues-ar/

[FatherXmas]

Another 3 months and another example of buy on rumor and sell on fact for the stock price.  First rumors of a not so stellar quarter drove the stock down to a 3 year low in October.  Then positive rumors drove the price up some 36% right before the 3Q numbers were posted.  Then the selloff began so it's now down 6% since the numbers came out.

I'm not going to bother breaking it all down.  Just list some highs and lows.

+ A surprise, to me, AION had a spectacular quarter.  Some new update/event/store change reinvigorated sales, up 79.5% QoQ, 45.7% YoY.

- Royalties, a large chunk being B&S and GW2 in China are down 40.7% QoQ but up (due to B&S and GW2) 125.9% YoY.

- WildStar with it 1st full quarter of income being off 42.9% from it's previous single month sales.  That's box/game sales for you.

+ Lineage recovered from it's 2Q doldrums, up 20.4%.

While overall sales are down roughly 1% QoQ, profits are up 43% due to not hawking and making boxes for any new games.  YoY 3Q is up 24.7% while profits are up 187.9%.

NCSOFT did announce a week or two ago that next week(?) at some gaming convention that they will outline all of their mobile platform plans as well as talk about the next set of games coming out in Korea.  Korea is still 65.5% of their total income last quarter.

[Taceus Jiwede]

Personally, I like the look of the Chinese version. The lemon boobs are gone, for one thing. I don't know about you, but I don't know ANY women who have giant lemons stuffed under their shirts.

I do.....but they all died in battle because their armor was TOTALLY ineffective.  And only covered the areas a swim suit would.

[JanessaVR]

I do.....but they all died in battle because their armor was TOTALLY ineffective.  And only covered the areas a swim suit would.

And again, I'm reminded of this hilarious exchange from Robotech:

"Why would they give her such skimpy armor that can only protect such a small portion of her body?"
"How would I know? Maybe those are the only parts of her that are vulnerable!"