Reply from NCSoft

[Manga]

Adding:  I'm just guessing here too, but it's the only thing that makes logical sense for why they would not only refuse a buyout of CoH, but make crazy demands like even asking to buy it is insulting to them.  It could simply be that they're trying to look vicious, and if they give in and sell CoH reasonably it makes them look weak and bending to American demands again.

Or shorter version:  That they believe their boost to reputation back home is worth losing money on the shutdown and refusing a sale.

[Atlantea]

Well I would say -

NCSoft - We would kindly and thoughtfully recommend buyers for any assets you have here in North America. You could sell off NCWest or spin them off into their own independent company. Why - you could even structure it as a loss for the tax write-off, since that seems to be a move you like to do.

Then, you no longer have to worry so much about Arenanet and Carbine being troublesome Western appendages that you don't know what to do with. They could function under the re-branded and re-organized NCWest and Paragon Studios could be reformed and City of Heroes could keep running as well, which would save you a lot of negative publicity.

If you - NCSoft - value your Western market so little, and are wanting to be rid of it and focus on Korean games and customers, we would be more than willing to assist you in your endeavor to be a provincial company that only does business in Korea to Koreans and no one else.

[Segev]

Atlantea:

If you can rephrase that to be more supportive rather than obviously derisive (and believe me, I understand your derision), that could be something worth sending to NCSoft via every vector we have. If that is, truly, a model they're hoping to follow, helping them expedite it in a way that might fit their business plans at an accelerated pace - while avoiding an adversarial tone - might have more than a Villain's chance in Atlas Park of working.

[Atlantea]

Atlantea:

If you can rephrase that to be more supportive rather than obviously derisive (and believe me, I understand your derision), that could be something worth sending to NCSoft via every vector we have. If that is, truly, a model they're hoping to follow, helping them expedite it in a way that might fit their business plans at an accelerated pace - while avoiding an adversarial tone - might have more than a Villain's chance in Atlas Park of working.

I'm sorry. I'm a little bitter these days and enjoying the schadenfreude as I watch their stock continue to tumble is one of the few things that bring me anything close to enjoyment. Frankly the above is as polite as it's going to get from me.

But if you want to run with the idea, be my guest.

[Ammon]

Don't lose hope.  Ammon quoted a price of $100 million as the valuation.  But he also quoted a pricetag of $100 million to do a successful reputation repair with stockholders if we can mount a negative publicity campaign that reaches the stockholders.  HandK will be watching for that--that is part of their job--and believe me, when they start reaching numbers in the millions, and mounting, for a reputation repair campaign, I suspect we won't have to wait for it to reach the magic $100 million number before they come crying.  It is much, much more expensive to repair a business reputation than it is to establish it.

Its better than that, VV, because the $100 million PR repair figure I mentioned was just for the US alone, and needs to have amounts added for other countries.  Branding campaigns are very expensive.  The costs of fixing negative PR can run into many hundreds of millions very quickly indeed when you have to run those campaigns throughout all of the Americas, Canada, and Europe too.

However, the flip-side of that is that human nature can take a while to admit mistakes.  In a worst case scenario we may indeed have to show them that they will spend a lot more than the value of the company before they force themselves to admit that its the smarter choice to change their minds.  That doesn't bother me too much, though, as we know we can do exactly that.

I think to an extent we need to stop speculating on exactly how and why NCsoft have decided they make more money from closing CoH than selling it.  Its enough to simply know that obviously they do, and that no offers made so far have come close to making them reevaluate their business decision to close CoH and Paragon. 

Heck, maybe the whole thing *is* to remove Paragon Studios from the picture so they can use a cheaper or asian firm to make CoH2, or because some property resided in the subsiduary and this was all about transferring that property to the parent company without having to buy it and publically declare its value.  We can't know, we can just know that so far no offer has come close to tempting them, meaning that their own plan seems to them to be the more profitable.

The end result is the same regardless.  They are predictable because for them, this is just business.  Its all about the money, either directly, or in share values.  We can lead them by the nose by affecting the money.  We have that power.  And we are unbeatable, because while they can throw money around they only do so in order to make more.  We act in passion, and don't care what this costs.  All that matters to us is whether or not we can do it, which we can. :)

[Segev]

I'm sorry. I'm a little bitter these days and enjoying the schadenfreude as I watch their stock continue to tumble is one of the few things that bring me anything close to enjoyment. Frankly the above is as polite as it's going to get from me.

But if you want to run with the idea, be my guest.

Hm. I just might! Thanks! (It is a good core concept.)

Going to quote you and edit in-quote, so nobody assume I'm direct-attributing here. It's just easiest for me this way:

Dear NCSoft,

We, the community of the City of Heroes, would be delighted to kindly and thoughtfully recommend buyers for any assets you have here in North America. If it is, indeed, your intention to slowly divest yourself of non-Asian holdings in a calculated business re-alignment, we would like to aid you in expediting and smoothing this process to the benefit of all involved. You could sell off NCWest or spin them off into their own independent company, and we would be happy to aid you in structuring this sale however most benefits your new company position.

This will remove the need to focus on Arenanet and Carbine in the West, which may also not fit your company alignment for much longer, and return profit while cutting losses and perhaps allowing them longer life under Western management whose company visions include that market. They could function under the re-branded and re-organized NCWest and Paragon Studios could be reformed and City of Heroes could keep running as well, which would result in a net positive publicity gain. The good reputation of NCSoft West, left to focus on its own company goals in the Western market, will reflect admirably upon NCSoft while NCSoft will have no financial obligations to the overseas company.

Since your realigned focus no longer includes City of Heroes and its siblings in Western genre, we would be more than willing to assist you in your endeavor to consolidate your resources and continue to bring the world excellent games with a strong focus on their target audiences.

[Doc Artz]

I'd say that's not only appropriate but a masterful response. Nicely written!

I feel the response was both well written and very appropriate. Watching NCsoft's stocks plummet and the massive protest from around the world, I'm beginning to seriously doubt if "success" will ever be part of NCsoft's future. Did I just make an inappropriate comment?

[Turjan]

Heck, maybe the whole thing *is* to remove Paragon Studios from the picture so they can use a cheaper or asian firm to make CoH2, or because some property resided in the subsiduary and this was all about transferring that property to the parent company without having to buy it and publically declare its value.

Interesting notion...could be they want to work with Nexon on a new product, but one that's unashamedly NOT a PC-based MMO - that would explain why they thought removing Paragon Studios AND the PC-playerbase was logical. Guild Wars 2 after all was the same platform as Guild Wars, so killing the original Guild Wars would've been damaging. But if they don't care about a PC future for the CoH franchise, and are totally focused on smartphones...then yes, there is a sort of twisted logic in killing the past for the sake of the future.

Which would also mean negative PR surrounding their handling of CoH would cause even more harm to that future than we'd thought...

[TimtheEnchanter]

Which would also mean negative PR surrounding their handling of CoH would cause even more harm to that future than we'd thought...

A smartphone replacement would be an even bigger insult than the shutdown.

[Segev]

A smartphone replacement would be an even bigger insult than the shutdown.

And all the more reason for Plan Z to put out its costume editor early...as a web and phone application. "Ours will connect to a real game!"

[downix]

And all the more reason for Plan Z to put out its costume editor early...as a web and phone application. "Ours will connect to a real game!"

Already beginning the framework.

[Hyperstrike]

And *that* is just for the non electronic version of the game....

Yeah.  I could probably break down the way the electronic licenses have run, but it's byzantine with a capital "BYZANTINE!!!" at best.

[dwturducken]

See above, I edited. :)

In some countries your company's reputation is everything.  And in some of those, that reputation better be tough and ruthless or you become a laughingstock.  American companies used to be like that around the industrial revolution time, but our culture is different now.  Maybe Korean culture is still more like that, and NCSoft wants to attract investors and customers by proving how aggressive and vicious they can be.

We're going to kill off a healthy game, make those spoiled Americans cry, make sure they cry some more, and we're going to mock them while we're at it, too!  Sounds pretty aggressive and vicious, doesn't it?  Maybe they believe that's a positive image for them in Korea.  Maybe even more so if they've been accused of being too soft and catering to Americans more than Koreans, in the past.

As reasonable as this is, and I don't disagree with it, it would hold more water if the stock were rising instead of falling, whatever the cause.

[Graphite]

/em applause

[JaguarX]

I thought their stock prices was already falling prior to the end of the game announcement? Although it seems the drop started to pick up speed afterwards, maybe karma, maybe just a coincidence or they forseen this and for some odd strange reason thought killing off a profit thing would help.

Know what's funny, I was going to buy stock in that company and had the money tranfered to the account that I use for that purpose on Aug. 29th. It was suppose to take only one day and was suppose to arrive on Aug 30th, but something happened and it got delayed until Sept 3rd. Man, things really happen for a reason because if everything happened as scheduled, I would have lost a lot and be in the red with that at the moment.

[Profit]

killing off a profit

Woah woah woah....

I don't think we need to go so drastic as to killing me off.....

[Victoria Victrix]

I thought their stock prices was already falling prior to the end of the game announcement? Although it seems the drop started to pick up speed afterwards, maybe karma, maybe just a coincidence or they foreseen this and for some odd strange reason thought killing off a profit thing would help.

Know what's funny, I was going to buy stock in that company and had the money transferred to the account that I use for that purpose on Aug. 29th. It was suppose to take only one day and was suppose to arrive on Aug 30th, but something happened and it got delayed until Sept 3rd. Man, things really happen for a reason because if everything happened as scheduled, I would have lost a lot and be in the red with that at the moment.

My goodness, JaguarX, you are the PERFECT spokesperson to the stockholders, or would-be stockholders.  "This is why I am so very pleased I did NOT buy NCSoft Stock!  They are committing corporate suicide!"

[JaguarX]

Woah woah woah....

I don't think we need to go so drastic as to killing me off.....

O.O

whoa didnt realize there was a dude actually named Profit here.  lmao! sup man, no, no one is killing you off here.

[Rotten Luck]

O.O

whoa didnt realize there was a dude actually named Profit here.  lmao! sup man, no, no one is killing you off here.

*Sighs and put away knife and hockey mask.* If you say so... but if a human sacrifice was needed would you be willing Profit?

[Segev]

*Sighs and put away knife and hockey mask.* If you say so... but if a human sacrifice was needed would you be willing Profit?

Well, now we know who to tell the cops had a Profit motive...

But don't worry; I'll reanimate you.