Problems for NCSoft

[TonyV]

Yes but TR was released.  Released too soon but released.  Tony is suggesting that Wildstar will die on the vine.

Yes, I think that's what will happen.  If it does launch, though, make no mistake: I don't think it will last long, probably a year or less.  Again, I'm not saying that's what I'm hoping, that's just what I think will happen.  If you ask me what I hope, it is that Carbine will be more successful than Paragon Studios was in rescuing the product of their efforts.

[Lucretia MacEvil]

Yes, I think that's what will happen.  If it does launch, though, make no mistake: I don't think it will last long, probably a year or less.  Again, I'm not saying that's what I'm hoping, that's just what I think will happen.  If you ask me what I hope, it is that Carbine will be more successful than Paragon Studios was in rescuing the product of their efforts.

I second this.

[doctorlurkin]

Originally I thought Wildstar might be interesting to check out, but that was three years or so ago and nothing on the official page really seemed to change since then.  It almost seemed to me like it was a shelved project or possibly a low-priority one.  Never really heard much about it anywhere else.

On a side note, I took a look real quick to see what the page looked like now.  I'm getting a "page not found" error for both the official site and the beta sign up. Kinda makes me wonder...

[Arachnion]

Originally I thought Wildstar might be interesting to check out, but that was three years or so ago and nothing on the official page really seemed to change since then.  It almost seemed to me like it was a shelved project or possibly a low-priority one.  Never really heard much about it anywhere else.

On a side note, I took a look real quick to see what the page looked like now.  I'm getting a "page not found" error for both the official site and the beta sign up. Kinda makes me wonder...

http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/ works for me.

[doctorlurkin]

Your link worked for me, thank you. But it doesn't work from the ncsoft site linking to the same address. Odd, unless I'm missing something stupidly simple.  Been known to happen.

[Ionmatrix]

Look guys I hate to say it but more people may end up in the unemployment line because of these jerks. They get these companies to build games build up the hype then suddenly pull the plugs. Finally MS and others are starting to see the trend and NC Soft is a BAD company to not only to work for, BUT to even do buisiness with. Heres a wiki link to some information about Arena Net the makers of Guildwars 1 & 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArenaNet heck guys even the Arena net Guys have LEFT NCSoft LOL I mean this is wild. Hope NC Soft WAKES UP Apologizes to US and the gaming comunity at large its shareholders then RESTARTS COX with a bang.

Peace yall

[Karasu]

i'll be honest, NCsoft looks like its headed for a hard landing at the end of a death-spiral, but as for our continuing bad press against them (not that we really have any, but if we did), a phrase from one of the character in a stephen king adaptation said it best. "Give me what i want, and i'll go away."

[Aggelakis]

Heres a wiki link to some information about Arena Net the makers of Guildwars 1 & 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArenaNet heck guys even the Arena net Guys have LEFT NCSoft LOL I mean this is wild.

Not sure what you're seeing, but ArenaNet is still an NCsoft subsidiary.

[Nightmarer]

Not sure what you're seeing, but ArenaNet is still an NCsoft subsidiary.

I think he means about Jeff Strain and Patrick Wyatt, Arena.net co-founders who left NCSoft back in 2009

[Technerdoc]

The promlem for NC-Soft is that there is not much left now. They have Guild Wars where everyone is talking about that's it's so nice to play this game for free, so not many people will give them extra money there and it's bad also when the players find out that this game is absolutly boring and left the game. Then there is Linage 2 and... how old is this game? There can't be so many players left over there. Then we have B**bs and S**ts, the problem is here that this game is absolutly the same like many others you  can play right now, like Tera for example or any other asia grider and now they proudly presents Wildstar, but who is really so mad in playing this game after all this mess when everyone knows that when this game is not running well, it will be axed no matter what's going on...

So I don't know where NC-Soft wants to take much money in the future. When you have the community against you then it's very hard to turn the table around, there are some other publishers out there where this was the same.

[Feycat]

The promlem for NC-Soft is that there is not much left now. They have Guild Wars where everyone is talking about that's it's so nice to play this game for free, so not many people will give them extra money there and it's bad also when the players find out that this game is absolutly boring and left the game.

Both of these things are completely untrue and/or at best opinions.

The servers are still crowded and have high populations. Lots of people buy gems and items from the gem shop.

It may be your opinion that the game is boring, but I take exception to stating it like a fact, because clearly many people do not find it so. Many people found COH boring too.

[Technerdoc]

Maybe, time will tell if this is enough to be profitable, we was thinking so too one time...

[Feycat]

Maybe, time will tell if this is enough to be profitable, we was thinking so too one time...

Oh, I have no doubts WHATSOEVER that how much profit they may be making will mean nothing if NCSoft decides to axe Anet like they did Paragon. Paragon was something like 3% of their annual profit. It's absolutely stupid to close down something that's actively making you money. Anet isn't safe by a long shot until they get out of NCsoft :(

[Technerdoc]

I don't think that ArenaNet have a problem right now, maybe in some years but not right now, but Wildstar will have a hard time when it's not running well. Maybe it is like Tony said and the game will be canceled, but we all know that NC-Soft have no problems to axe it after a year when there is not the money they wanted to see. No one cares about this few City of Heroes players from a game that was running 6 years. I read it in the comments from a mag: Players really seen a positive aspect "Hey, NC-Soft runs the game 6 years, that's a good age for an MMORPG" but when a game like Wildstar will axe afte a year maybe things are not that simple.

[FatherXmas]

The promlem for NC-Soft is that there is not much left now. They have Guild Wars where everyone is talking about that's it's so nice to play this game for free, so not many people will give them extra money there and it's bad also when the players find out that this game is absolutly boring and left the game. Then there is Linage 2 and... how old is this game? There can't be so many players left over there. Then we have B**bs and S**ts, the problem is here that this game is absolutly the same like many others you  can play right now, like Tera for example or any other asia grider and now they proudly presents Wildstar, but who is really so mad in playing this game after all this mess when everyone knows that when this game is not running well, it will be axed no matter what's going on...

So I don't know where NC-Soft wants to take much money in the future. When you have the community against you then it's very hard to turn the table around, there are some other publishers out there where this was the same.

While Lineage 2 was shut down in NA they still have servers in Europe as well as Asia.  In the 3Q report L2 sales are down but it's been dropping for a while now.  Lineage is still going strong and it's an even older game than either L2 or CoH.  It had higher sales than the once high flying Aion or the new oiled up B&S.  And it had higher sales in the 3rd quarter than CoH has had cumulatively since 4th quarter 2009 to closer.

It's easy to sit back an imagine why the stock price is in decline, but it's still considerably higher than where it was just a few years ago.

And you think that this little merry band of misfit toys is upsetting their apple cart is delusional.  They have bigger problems than our whining over here in NA.  Their growth in Korea has stagnated.  Their major titles in Korea and Asia don't fly well in the west.  They have yet to break into mainland China's market, a very large market, in a significant way.  They are just starting to work on a mobile smartphone/tablet gaming which is being forecasted as the next big growth area.  The Korean government is looking to crack down on gaming addiction by increasing the age range and hours people can play as well as a 1% levy on sales to fund gaming addiction clinics.  Their founder/CEO/Director sold off a major chunk of his personal holdings in the company to a competitor, likely as collateral/hostage, for their insight into running F2P gaming as well as a joint project.  They consistently miss sales projections, by a lot, just about every quarter for the last several years.

Their stock price was outrageously inflated for how the company was doing and finally it's coming down to where it should have been all this time.  It's not because we are stamping our little feet and holding our breath and calling them poopy-heads.

[FatherXmas]

Oh, I have no doubts WHATSOEVER that how much profit they may be making will mean nothing if NCSoft decides to axe Anet like they did Paragon. Paragon was something like 3% of their annual profit. It's absolutely stupid to close down something that's actively making you money. Anet isn't safe by a long shot until they get out of NCsoft :(

Actually a bit over 2% of their annual sales.  We have no idea about profit.

[Technerdoc]

I was wondering that on the European Site are only 4 games left. Guild Wars 1+2, Blade & Soul and Wildstar. Aion and Linage 2 are only on the US Site. What it the story behind this?

[FatherXmas]

I was wondering that on the European Site are only 4 games left. Guild Wars 1+2, Blade & Soul and Wildstar. Aion and Linage 2 are only on the US Site. What it the story behind this?

That's interesting.  It's in Europe.  Here is a link to a stats page.  Maybe because Gameforge is running the game in Europe?