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General: NCsoft's Intriguing Casual Purchase
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In The Free Zone this week, we take a look at the recent purchase of casual games maker Ntreev Soft by powerhouse MMO publisher NCSoft. What are the implications for its current stable of games? Read on to find out!
In a newsworthy and potentially quite significant move that surprises absolutely no one who has been watching the Korean online game market and industry, NCsoft has taken a step toward becoming a player in the casual sector by acquiring Ntreev Soft. According to various reports during the past week or so, it looks like the price was nearly $US 100 million for just over three-quarters of the company. Whether this will prove to be a bargain or an over-expenditure is difficult to predict.
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: NCsoft's Intriguing Casual Purchase.
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Comments
I think that GW2 will stay B2P for many years if the average person doesn't get bored after merely one month of playing it. If GW2 fails to deliver in many areas, such as longevity, smooth W v W v W, etc, I can very well imagine it go F2P very soon.
In other words: if people perceive GW2 to be a lackluster game after it has been released for a month, then I expect it to go F2P swiftly.
NCSoft + Casual is not actually possible. This company is responsible for the phrase "Korean Grindfest". Their games are so grindy that people have actually died because of it. The laws of KOREA had to be changed because their games were so grindy.
If NCSoft goes casual then hell just literally froze over.
You are a brave soul and I salute you for it.
/salute
It is true. Seriously everytime someone has died recently because of video games it has been a NCSoft game. If you ever played the casual version of Aion 1.0 when it launched you know what I mean.
I mean wtf now is Farmville going to require 10,000 seeds to plant a single tree now? The seeds have to be planted and then RNG will dictate if the seed lands in the correct spot, but for the tree to grow the seed has to proc to a super special seed.
Could you imagine "You have played 20 hours of Farmville. Please log off"
I wasn't disagreeing with you. I just think you better prepare yourself for the onslaught from the GW2 kiddos. I have TRIED Anet games and agree with you totally.
There is a difference between being a developer and a publisher. NCSoft is known for its grind as a developer; however, that does not automatically mean that all their published games will be grindy.
Games? or did you mean game. Because Anet only has GW in release. I am no fan of NCSoft but Anet is a whole 'nother thing. The only thing that NCSoft has ever done consistantly right was to leave Anet the hell alone. That has made them good money. You really just make yourself sound ignorant when you equate NCSoft's game development style with that of ArenaNet. One may own the other but they are otherwise completely different companies with completely different cultures and completely different styles.
All die, so die well.
GW2 for the most part agree with me. Only thing they want NCSoft to do is sit back and dump trukloads of money onto ArenaNET's lap and have zero input on the actual game.
And who's fault is it that people die from playing games?
I doubt a country would change it's laws because one company makes games that are grindy as hell too but maybe i'm just taking you too seriously?
indeed, blaming a company because the individual can't stop playing is stupid, it's his own responsibility.
Isn't it obvious he's from the future where anet dominated the gaming market and he came back in time to stop their evil plot to take over the world.
better arena net take over the world then this F2P ridiculous thing, or EA, or blizzard
not F2P. another possibility for the SEA region is top-up, buying game time for GW2. i think NCSoft tried this with GW1 but it didnt succeed much. B2P is something foreign for the region.
Have fun storming the castle! - Miracle Max
I can't see them turning GW2 F2P for a long time if they every do. I hope they keep the F2P and the B2P seperate.
Everytime I read these articles all I can do is shake my head. How can anyone be that is supposed to be in touch with this genre be so out of touch. NCSoft is a company on a downward spiral. This new company was a waste of money if you ask me, never heard of any of those titles and I am pretty up on what kids are playing right now.
As for GW2, it is not designed as a f2p and NCSoft would kill the franchise if they tried changing it to one. There is a tremendous amount of competition for the f2p dollars right now and NCSoft is behind the eight ball in that arena. Just look at the ridiculous way they converted Aion.
If anyone has NCSoft stock, sell it. It is going no where.
ncsoft had signed an agreement with sony to bring several mmo's to the ps3, of which they've delivered none.
perhaps they want to avoid a breach of contract by taking this crapware and shoveling it onto ps3 before some sort of deadline.
your delibertly trying to create drama where there is none.
hahahaha I thought I'd never see you again! But hey it's a small world lol. Puremallace your just a troll and always have been from the time when you started to post on Aion fourms. You'd just trolled the forums and flame the GM's. Till you got banned from the forums and raged off. You don't like anything NCsoft. So please shut up. Thanks!
Dungeon Runners was being ported to the PS3, but NCSoft killed that project and then finally the game. Dungeon Runners could have been a good F2P contender for NCSoft had the company actually dedicated real budget and resources to it instead of using it as a low-budget experiment.
The game wasn't perfect by any means, but it was a lot of fun to those who played it and the developers had a lot of plans for improving it greatly.
Actually all the "kiddos" will be playing TERA. Because it will be F2P 2 months after launch.
The mature PvP players will be playing GW2.
There I fixed it for you.
B2P have some advantages over f2P as well as it have disadvantages.
The thing with GW2 that also made it impossible to turn GW1 into F2P is the very little focus on gear. F2P games need people to buy stuff to continue to get in some money, while B2P games do fine with just selling boxes.
It is the same reasons that FPS and RTS games are B2P and not F2P, there just ain´t enough stuff you can sell that people would like to buy.
F2P works excellent for PvE games with a gear focus but for a game like GW2 to be F2P it would need to sell classes, races and skills. I have a feeling that wouldn´t be really popular with the fans.
Besides, B2P is an excellent payment method and almost all computer games since the commodore vic-20 to today besides browser games have been B2P, it wouldn´t be so if the model wouldn´t work.
nah, if GW isn´t F2P now I doubt GW2 will be in for a long time. It is possible that the original game might go F2P after GW2 launches though even if it would take some work and revamping for that.
I dunno about that, Rift actually made a surprisingly large amount of money in it´s first year and it seems quality wise to be rather similar to TERA.
And GW1 do have it's number of kids so GW2 surely will get a bunch of them as well.
I don´t see Tera going up against GW2 but that neither means it is a bad game or that it will go F2P fast.
What do you expect? Clearly, he is a being of pure malice. And one that cannot spell all too well.
I think it's a good thing, this purchase. NCSoft is a terrible, awful, no good, bad developer, but they have shown they are a good publisher, and they know when to drop dead weight so they can keep going (Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners). They are playing hands off on Anet, and GW was great, and GW2 looks even better. They know what they are doing. So I say, let them keep doing it.
"There are two great powers, and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."
John Parry, to his son Will; "The Subtle Knife," by Phillip Pullman
I think (former) AAA-titles can (should?) all go Buy2Play instead fully Free2Play. Guild Wars (and soon Guild Wars 2) has done well with over 5mlj boxed sales and still going strong. Right now I'm playing GW to prepare for GW2 and still see lots of lowbee players like me running around in cities.
About the whole B2P thing... If SWToR would have been B2P instead P2P, I'd have bought it, but to me the monthly sub is not worth the game. And I'm very sure a lot of players feel the same way about one or the other MMO they've played in the past.