At the risk of hijacking my own thread, a thought just occurred to me...
(it's not a thought worth a new thread, and I figured if I'm going to ramble down mental byways I might as well clutter up one of my own threads rather than mess up someone else's
)
Right, so, here's the thing...
I was thinking about that Glassdoor article about NCSoft's ongoing inability to operate in the west.
Then I started thinking about Nexon's recent "bring it on!" bravado in their Forbes article, all about operating MMOs in the western market.
I thought about F2P models, and NCSoft, and Nexon.
Then I thought about NCSoft selling shares to Nexon.
Finally (as always) I tried to work out what part CoH plays in such thinking.
Here's what I came up with -
With the exception of GW2 and ArenaNet, NCSoft have been pulling out of the west for a long time. Nexon, on the other hand, seem to be more intent on expanding in the west.
With the stock transfer from NCSoft to Nexon in mind, how crazy does the idea sound of NCSoft wanting to pull out of the west
entirely and letting their more marketing savvy partner Nexon handle joint NCSoft/Nexon foreign affairs?
But the two companies aren't one, they're just...chums. Sort of. In as much as any union between two huge corporations is.
With that line of thought, CoH starts to look like a bump in the road, one to be flattened out. Sure, CoH is an entirely western idea, western icons etc., seemingly the perfect property to hand to Nexon and let them run the show...but I repeat, the two companies ARE NOT MERGED. I'm betting there's a million logistical and legal issues that would make a handover like that far more trouble than it's worth.
But if we assume the future path is clear for both companies (NCSoft work more at home, Nexon operate more overseas, all for mutual benefit) then CoH becomes a problem, not a solution. It's a bit of yesterday that needs to be trimmed off. Yes, conceptually it may be in accord with some future plan of both companies, but it's got too many deep roots to just dig up and transplant. Easier to chop it down, then get the new gardener in to plant something in its place.
So I'm curious now...is the plan that NCSoft retreats to the east and Nexon acts for both in the west?
Guess we wait and see.