MMORPG Developer NCSoft Set To Undergo Mass Restructuring Including Layoffs

A report from Yonhap News Agency, a news agency headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, developer NCSoft appears to be undergoing additional restructuring including layoffs and potential recommended resignations and voluntary retirements. The news comes just three weeks after its latest MMORPG, Throne and Liberty, released in the West.

According to YNA, NCSoft is targeting a specific number of employees belonging to the actual game development and operation organizations of the company, which comes after layoffs earlier in the year which targeted more support-related departments in the company. The report also claims that since new NCSoft CEO Park Byung-moo took office in April, employees across non-development-related divisions have been encouraged to resign.

As part of the restructuring, NCSoftis also considering more spin-offs based on some of its existing IPs. Despite a strong western release of Throne and Liberty which quickly passed 3 million unique players and over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam alone, NCSoft’s other games have struggled. Its flagship series Lineage has seen a decline in sales on mobile. Mobile game sales as a whole were responsible for over 67% of NCSoft’s annual sales last year, but plummeted by 38% this year.

And despite the solid numbers for the newly released Throne and Liberty, the game is being published by Amazon in the West. This means that profits from the new MMORPG are likely shared in some way with the publisher, making it a lot less likely to make a massive impact compared to NCSoft-developed and self-published titles in other markets.

Even still, it’s the continuation of a very sickening trend in the game industry this year. Long-developed titles finally launched to relative success only to see the studios responsible shuttered or facing layoffs shortly after. Here’s to hoping the many affected can quickly find new opportunities in the shrinking industry.