Over the past 28 years, the South Korean company NCsoft has established itself as one of the main operators of online role-playing games. However, the publisher and developer has been facing a crisis for some time, largely due to the PC MMORPGs.
What is the situation with NCsoft? There are more and more indications or even evidence that the South Korean publisher and developer is in a serious crisis:
- As early as October 2024, there were reports that layoffs and restructuring at NCsoft were imminent. This apparently could not be prevented by the recently released MMORPG Throne and Liberty. In none of the publisher’s recent financial reports disclosed the revenue figures for T&L.
- For example, the financial report from November 2024 revealed that NCsoft is incurring losses.
- In January 2025, reports followed that several projects at NCsoft had been terminated prematurely.
- In February 2025, NCsoft also had to announce that there would be no global launch in 2025 for the major hope Aion 2. Initially, the MMORPG will only be released in Korea and Taiwan… and this, despite having stated previously that they aimed to focus heavily on conquering the western market.
Aion 2 is the major hope for NCsoft:
Fresh successes are missing on PC
What is the reason for the crisis? Looking at NCsoft’s current line-up of PC MMORPGs, it stands out: aside from Throne and Liberty, all other pillars of the company are twelve or much older:
- Lineage (September 1998)
- Lineage 2 (October 2003)
- Guild Wars (April 2005)
- Aion (September 2009)
- Blade & Soul (June 2012)
- Guild Wars 2 (August 2012)
This can be explained by several reasons.
- Firstly, because some MMORPG projects like Tabula Rasa (2007) and WildStar (2014) were discontinued due to lack of success.
- Secondly, because there has been a clear shift in focus from NCsoft to mobile over the past decade.
- And thirdly, because the development of Throne and Liberty took over a decade and tied up many resources during that time.
The official revenue figures from NCsoft reflect the age of the current PC MMORPGs as well as the focus on mobile for years. According to the financial report for Q4 2024 (via ncsoft.com), the mobile game Lineage M alone is said to have generated more revenue in 2024 than Guild Wars 2, Blade & Soul, Aion, Lineage 2, and Lineage combined. Similar trends were seen in 2022 and 2023.
In addition, the other mobile spinoffs Lineage 2M, Lineage W, and Blade & Soul 2 further boost NCsoft’s mobile sector to a multiple of the revenues of the PC division.
However, the mobile sector is also lacking new releases. From 2022 to 2024, total revenue from mobile games has fallen by more than half. Overall, NCsoft currently has ten active MMORPGs on the market, which collectively generate far too little revenue.
What does the future hold? Currently, Aion 2 is the only new project from NCsoft that actually has a release window. Other games like Project LLL (a SciFi MMO shooter), Tactan: Knights of the Gods (RTS MMO), the Horizon MMO, or the MMORPG Project E have been announced for years, and it is unclear whether any of them are among the halted developments or if all are still in production.
Additionally, there are the two games that are supposed to be developed by ArenaNet: Guild Wars 3 and a AAA game being developed in Unreal Engine 5. In both cases, the release is likely still several years away. More on this: ArenaNet is looking for support for the “unannounced project” – What about Guild Wars 3? In short: NCsoft is heading into difficult times for the foreseeable future.
