NCSoft Declines More Interviews from Increasing Gaming Press Requests
By
AquaJAWS,
Posted on: 2012-10-24 15:25 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Well, it may be a genuinely stupid decision. We should be in a position to judge that in perhaps a year.
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Originally Posted by JKedan
Why is it people assume stupidity or malice when the opposite is the most reasonable conclusion?
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Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project
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How ridiculous to see people actively working for NCSoft as trolls.|
Originally Posted by Brillig
Considering how Save CoH is in bed with the illegal reverse engineering effort, I can't imagine why NCSoft would refuse to talk to them... Gee. Total puzzler.
Does this "journalist" actually do any reporting or is it all copy-paste from Save CoH? I think to call yourself a member of the press, you actually have to do at least a little work on your own. |
If you had the sense of a gnat you would know that the Plan Z - is to reverse engineer LEGALLY a game similar to City of Heroes but not the same game.
So please continue to spew the Evil Legacy and Brillag view of truth that is very much like that seen in Iraq when watching Baghdad Bob. Please don't bother responding you 2 trolls can have this site to play in the wreckage. I have never seen 2 such pathetic children in my life.
1. NOWHERE does he say PLAN Z is the illegal reverse engineering - he/she was referencing the emulation project.
2. Just because someone says something you don't like that makes them an NCSoft employee.. is that what the Titan KoolAid is making people spew now? All dissenters/realists are employed by NCSoft? LOL. That's like saying if you don't support Obama you must be a Pro lifer and hate gays... Couldn't possibly be he/they have their own opinions just because theirs is different than yours..Nah.
3. If anyone is being a unicorn here it would be the one calling people trolls and insinuating they are paid employees of NCSoft. When it comes down to it that is your only "argument" since you failed to comprehend what the post you replied to was saying. The "pathetic children" remark..nice touch.
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Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades
How ridiculous to see people actively working for NCSoft as trolls.
If you had the sense of a gnat you would know that the Plan Z - is to reverse engineer LEGALLY a game similar to City of Heroes but not the same game. So please continue to spew the Evil Legacy and Brillag view of truth that is very much like that seen in Iraq when watching Baghdad Bob. Please don't bother responding you 2 trolls can have this site to play in the wreckage. I have never seen 2 such pathetic children in my life. |
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Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
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And considering that I have been accused of being an NCsoft employee *several times* on these boards, I would have to agree with you. I believe that Brillig and I are now tied 3 a piece.
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Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
2. Just because someone says something you don't like that makes them an NCSoft employee.. is that what the Titan KoolAid is making people spew now? All dissenters/realists are employed by NCSoft? LOL. That's like saying if you don't support Obama you must be a Pro lifer and hate gays... Couldn't possibly be he/they have their own opinions just because theirs is different than yours..Nah.
3. If anyone is being a unicorn here it would be the one calling people trolls and insinuating they are paid employees of NCSoft. When it comes down to it that is your only "argument" since you failed to comprehend what the post you replied to was saying. The "pathetic children" remark..nice touch. |
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I probably got you both beat.
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Originally Posted by Gangrel_EU
And considering that I have been accused of being an NCsoft employee *several times* on these boards, I would have to agree with you. I believe that Brillig and I are now tied 3 a piece.
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-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard.  Never change, E_L! |
Luckily they just call me an NCSoft fangirl (which I know I should be bothered by since...uhmm.. I gots a weiner).
I'm sure I will make my way up to NCSoft Employee of the Month SOON though.
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Originally Posted by Paladiamors
I love you, I Burnt the Toast!
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yeah.
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Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
Luckily they just call me an NCSoft fangirl (which I know I should be bothered by since...uhmm.. I gots a weiner).
I'm sure I will make my way up to NCSoft Employee of the Month SOON though. |
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
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You get a pay rise as well.|
Originally Posted by I Burnt The Toast
Luckily they just call me an NCSoft fangirl (which I know I should be bothered by since...uhmm.. I gots a weiner).
I'm sure I will make my way up to NCSoft Employee of the Month SOON though. |
You jump up from feck all to a peanut (once in a blue moon)
Evil_Legacy
Look I know what I am talking about when I mentioned Ntreev and the rest after it under the financial portion of my comment. I learned abouot it when I learned about NCsoft losing money on the second quarter. Those are facts and not fiction.
Also I remember NCsoft themselves saying that it is due to rising cost of labor and a change in direction is why this game is shutting down.
This closure was a big surprise to all of the players as well as to the devs themselves. This was not something where the majority of players were saying hey this game is losing players. It is old and probably not making as much money for them anymore. Where it would be no surprise to the players. Instead it turned out to be a big surprise to many.
They have lost my trust, something that they could've kept if they told us everthing at the moment of the announcement of closing this game. I mean take a look at what the devs have said, it does not matter why or how we got here. I am sure that everyone would like to know how and why we have gotten to this point. The real truth, no lies no rumors.
I was using the comment of how long this game lasted and the fact that it survived losing one third of it's playerbase to WoW. At it's peak it had 180,000 players. Then not long after WoW it went down to 120,000 players and stayed there for a long time. That makes it a phenom in it's own right.
This is not putting me off of MMO's. News flash I am playing D3 the majority of the time. When I need a break from the action I play either LOTRO or Hellgate: Global.
I just do not trust NCsoft anymore and will not support them. The only way that would change is if they can show me that they are making good strong and sound financial decisions. That will take a long time to earn back the lost trust.
Now if when they made the announcement of the shutdown they actually gave us the full information on why the shut down is happening. The it would've been better for them. No instead they have decided to give just a little bit of information and say accept it like pablo's dog. Sorry I am not buying it.
I truly believe that NCsoft has a chip on it's shoulder and did not like the fact that City of Heroes done better over the years than all of their failed MMO's could ever do. Sure it was not a WoW success, but it did not have to be in order to last 8+ years.
Ebony Fists: Level 50 DM/Regen Scrapper, Gloom Piston Robotics/Dark mastermind level 34, QueenFireMare: Level 34 Fire blaster (pure fire),
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Maybe. Then it sounds like we already know the why and sounds like they already told us the why. |
Originally Posted by Gilfred
Evil_Legacy
Look I know what I am talking about when I mentioned Ntreev and the rest after it under the financial portion of my comment. I learned abouot it when I learned about NCsoft losing money on the second quarter. Those are facts and not fiction. Also I remember NCsoft themselves saying that it is due to rising cost of labor and a change in direction is why this game is shutting down. This closure was a big surprise to all of the players as well as to the devs themselves. This was not something where the majority of players were saying hey this game is losing players. It is old and probably not making as much money for them anymore. Where it would be no surprise to the players. Instead it turned out to be a big surprise to many. They have lost my trust, something that they could've kept if they told us everthing at the moment of the announcement of closing this game. I mean take a look at what the devs have said, it does not matter why or how we got here. I am sure that everyone would like to know how and why we have gotten to this point. The real truth, no lies no rumors. I was using the comment of how long this game lasted and the fact that it survived losing one third of it's playerbase to WoW. At it's peak it had 180,000 players. Then not long after WoW it went down to 120,000 players and stayed there for a long time. That makes it a phenom in it's own right. This is not putting me off of MMO's. News flash I am playing D3 the majority of the time. When I need a break from the action I play either LOTRO or Hellgate: Global. I just do not trust NCsoft anymore and will not support them. The only way that would change is if they can show me that they are making good strong and sound financial decisions. That will take a long time to earn back the lost trust. Now if when they made the announcement of the shutdown they actually gave us the full information on why the shut down is happening. The it would've been better for them. No instead they have decided to give just a little bit of information and say accept it like pablo's dog. Sorry I am not buying it. I truly believe that NCsoft has a chip on it's shoulder and did not like the fact that City of Heroes done better over the years than all of their failed MMO's could ever do. Sure it was not a WoW success, but it did not have to be in order to last 8+ years. |
"In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios."
The why seemed to be, according to the first announcement, for realignment of company focus and publishing support and also according to what you said you already know.
What more was there that needed to be explained dealing with why they shutdown the game? Dont think they specifically mentioned labor costs but as you, I do recall seeing that posting at one point in time somewhere too. With those two reasons alone or hell even with the alignment one, there is nothing more that NCSoft needs to explain. They can choose to explain more if they see fit but it is not needed. Dont seem like anything more needs to be explained from NCSoft at this point about the why. It's not like they shutdown the game immediately, more like 90 day notice. Although the workers probably got shocked more than anything but it happens everyday in US companies too. Sometimes the boss calls a morning meeting, say that the company has decided to cut back and a particualr department's service is no longer needed and everyone clear their deask and go home and their last check will be in the mail. While at teh same time the company is building a call center in India to replace those workers it just laid off that day. Sudden for Paragon Studio workers, yes, but nothing unusual in the job market in today's US. No matter of when they made the announcement whether if it was July 31st 2011 or Nov. 1st 2012, it would still be just as sudden, no more no less, than when they made the announcement on Aug 31st. Only difference would have been the amount of days left to play. They gave us about 90. Hey, it could of been 30 or less days. Only way it wouldnt have been sudden if they released some announcement prior that said, that if COX dont bring in more money or players then we will be forced to shut down. Which usually when that announcement happens, the end result is still the same just a bit more drawn out. In this case since it's a company alignment decision, then it is possible that they told us as soon as possible after the decision was made of what would entail in that alignment.
While players never thought about the slipping player population overall, maybe they should have been concerned.
Also came across this post about someone asking about the sudden lack of game cards in his area. Man, hindsight is a **** in that case. But at the time it probably just looked as if many players stopped buying game cards and did so online to buy the time. Even here, about month prior to the announcement it was hard to find game cards for the game but there sure as hell was plenty of WoW cards hanging about.
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
NCSoft through the announcement from Paragon Studio only used the "realignment" statement as their reason for shutting down the game. They made no other statement as to the reason for the shutdown.
In NCSoft's slide show about 2Q 2012, which came out several weeks before the closure announcement, they listed on page 6 the following reasons as to why their costs shot up in 2Q.
- Labor cost temporarily surged 27% QoQ due to one-off severance pay.
- Royalty expense went up 35% QoQ reflecting full quarter impact from ‘Ntreev’ consolidation as opposed to 1 month impact in 1Q.
- Box production fee also rose due to AION box sales in Japan.
- Marketing expense increased 112% QoQ with marketing activities for B&S launch in June.
- D&A expanded 28% QoQ recognizing full quarter amortization related to ‘Ntreev’.
I hate percentages, it can hide the real costs. Now overall, 2Q costs were up 27,030 million KrW. The labor costs were up 19,638; royalty expense up 1,106; box production fee up 1,011; marketing expense up 3,604; D&A up 2,532. There were some costs that went down as well as a more favorable kick from other income/expense that brought the total increase to the 27,030. Problem was sales revenues were only up 5,638 and the previous quarter's operating profit was only 13,749. Add that all together and voila, quarterly loss in operating profits. In comparison, CoH only had sale revenues of 2,855 in 2Q.
Yes they increased their marketing expenses, to market Blade & Soul in Korea, by an amount that was greater than the revenue CoH had that quarter. Our sales earnings weren't even enough to fund an ad campaign in Korea. This is from a company that spends only 3% of their sales revenues in marketing, which is pretty darn low for a game company.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
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Really? The revenue couldnt even fund an NCSoft ad campaign? Dang.|
Originally Posted by Father Xmas
NCSoft through the announcement from Paragon Studio only used the "realignment" statement as their reason for shutting down the game. They made no other statement as to the reason for the shutdown.
In NCSoft's slide show about 2Q 2012, which came out several weeks before the closure announcement, they listed on page 6 the following reasons as to why their costs shot up in 2Q.
I hate percentages, it can hide the real costs. Now overall, 2Q costs were up 27,030 million KrW. The labor costs were up 19,638; royalty expense up 1,106; box production fee up 1,011; marketing expense up 3,604; D&A up 2,532. There were some costs that went down as well as a more favorable kick from other income/expense that brought the total increase to the 27,030. Problem was sales revenues were only up 5,638 and the previous quarter's operating profit was only 13,749. Add that all together and voila, quarterly loss in operating profits. In comparison, CoH only had sale revenues of 2,855 in 2Q. Yes they increased their marketing expenses, to market Blade & Soul in Korea, by an amount that was greater than the revenue CoH had that quarter. Our sales earnings weren't even enough to fund an ad campaign in Korea. This is from a company that spends only 3% of their sales revenues in marketing, which is pretty darn low for a game company. |
So basically not much reason to keep it running?
And about that severance pay prior to the announcement. Do that mean they already made the decision by the time the 2Q report came out? Or was that severance pay for another group of workers that was let go?
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
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There is on MMO that has no game time card on the market at all AFAIK and that is a new game called "The Secret World" By Funcom. There has never been a game time card for that game since it launched back in July of this year. So no game time card is not a perfect indicator here for this game. Heck they could've had a digital game time cards and put them in the market place if they wanted to. |
Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy
Maybe. Then it sounds like we already know the why and sounds like they already told us the why.
"In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios." The why seemed to be, according to the first announcement, for realignment of company focus and publishing support and also according to what you said you already know. What more was there that needed to be explained dealing with why they shutdown the game? Dont think they specifically mentioned labor costs but as you, I do recall seeing that posting at one point in time somewhere too. With those two reasons alone or hell even with the alignment one, there is nothing more that NCSoft needs to explain. They can choose to explain more if they see fit but it is not needed. Dont seem like anything more needs to be explained from NCSoft at this point about the why. It's not like they shutdown the game immediately, more like 90 day notice. Although the workers probably got shocked more than anything but it happens everyday in US companies too. Sometimes the boss calls a morning meeting, say that the company has decided to cut back and a particualr department's service is no longer needed and everyone clear their deask and go home and their last check will be in the mail. While at teh same time the company is building a call center in India to replace those workers it just laid off that day. Sudden for Paragon Studio workers, yes, but nothing unusual in the job market in today's US. No matter of when they made the announcement whether if it was July 31st 2011 or Nov. 1st 2012, it would still be just as sudden, no more no less, than when they made the announcement on Aug 31st. Only difference would have been the amount of days left to play. They gave us about 90. Hey, it could of been 30 or less days. Only way it wouldnt have been sudden if they released some announcement prior that said, that if COX dont bring in more money or players then we will be forced to shut down. Which usually when that announcement happens, the end result is still the same just a bit more drawn out. In this case since it's a company alignment decision, then it is possible that they told us as soon as possible after the decision was made of what would entail in that alignment. While players never thought about the slipping player population overall, maybe they should have been concerned. Also came across this post about someone asking about the sudden lack of game cards in his area. Man, hindsight is a **** in that case. But at the time it probably just looked as if many players stopped buying game cards and did so online to buy the time. Even here, about month prior to the announcement it was hard to find game cards for the game but there sure as hell was plenty of WoW cards hanging about. |
Also there are games that are free to play but have a vip sub model (both pay to play and free to play) Those game never have a game time card at all. You have that to consider as well. So no game time card does not necessarily mean that the game will be shutting down.
Now a population decline that is something that is hard to ignore. But how much of a decline is what will speak volumes. Also if it was a decline in population then what is so bad about telling the players.
Heads up protectors of Paragon City, we have noticed that there has been a decline in the number of protectors in this city. A decline in players results in a decline in paying subs and the money that is coming into the Paragon Market. Add to it an increase in the labor cost to make new content for this game. And a decision to shift the company's focus in publishing. Effective as of today all development of this game will cease and we will be shutting down this game. More news to follow.
Giving us the news in this fashion would not have been as bad as the bits and pieces that we got. Some of those bits and pieces are things that we had to look for ourselves.
Ebony Fists: Level 50 DM/Regen Scrapper, Gloom Piston Robotics/Dark mastermind level 34, QueenFireMare: Level 34 Fire blaster (pure fire),
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I believe the severance pay was from previous layoffs. It's common when one company buys another that duplicate front office jobs are let go. Areas like HR, accounting, marketing, sales, etc. It's also been reported that there's been general layoffs throughout Korea's game industry.|
Originally Posted by Evil_Legacy
Really? The revenue couldnt even fund an NCSoft ad campaign? Dang.
So basically not much reason to keep it running? And about that severance pay prior to the announcement. Do that mean they already made the decision by the time the 2Q report came out? Or was that severance pay for another group of workers that was let go? |
Now my point about our sales revenues is that it wasn't a lot, certainly not the numbers one would expect if the game was doing well. The comparison was just to illustrate how small in comparison to other expenses.
As others including myself have mentioned. The game may simply be a casualty of the decision to close down Paragon Studios. Sure they might have been able to keep the game hobbling along but without new content for subscribers and the cash shop, revenues would likely have plummeted over the next year and they would have to close it then.
I've also stated in the past that I'm sure at least Brian, Posi, War Witch and whoever else who was high up in the food chain at Paragon Studios knew something was coming, I bet they were hoping for just a major staff reduction for another year of life. It may have been a surprise to others at Paragon but as Nick Fury said in The Avengers; "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." No reason to tell us about their concerns, no reason not to hard sell the features in Issue 24 or not discuss future issues, costumes and power sets. News about a possible downsizing would have the same effect as server consolidation, players would start leaving which would reduce the game's revenues even more and employee morale and productivity would likely be negatively affected.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
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ah yes. This is true.
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Originally Posted by Father Xmas
I believe the severance pay was from previous layoffs. It's common when one company buys another that duplicate front office jobs are let go. Areas like HR, accounting, marketing, sales, etc. It's also been reported that there's been general layoffs throughout Korea's game industry.
Now my point about our sales revenues is that it wasn't a lot, certainly not the numbers one would expect if the game was doing well. The comparison was just to illustrate how small in comparison to other expenses. As others including myself have mentioned. The game may simply be a casualty of the decision to close down Paragon Studios. Sure they might have been able to keep the game hobbling along but without new content for subscribers and the cash shop, revenues would likely have plummeted over the next year and they would have to close it then. I've also stated in the past that I'm sure at least Brian, Posi, War Witch and whoever else who was high up in the food chain at Paragon Studios knew something was coming, I bet they were hoping for just a major staff reduction for another year of life. It may have been a surprise to others at Paragon but as Nick Fury said in The Avengers; "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on." No reason to tell us about their concerns, no reason not to hard sell the features in Issue 24 or not discuss future issues, costumes and power sets. News about a possible downsizing would have the same effect as server consolidation, players would start leaving which would reduce the game's revenues even more and employee morale and productivity would likely be negatively affected. |
-Female Player-
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Originally Posted by mauk2
Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words.
"Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L! |
Yes I was one that liked the earlier screenshots of the game when it was in development. The locations were beautiful and the idea of wire style Kung Fu moves and fighting excited me. Then as more and more info about the game came out, the less I liked it. I'm not looking for a game that requires great reflexes to play.
As for the female character models, well lets say I don't like anime series when the first adjective you can think of to describe it as "fanservice". I watched a video someone posted going over all the female character models that are available in the creator and it resembled leafing through a Victoria Secret's catalog since they all appear to be wearing gossamer draped lingerie. That now nearly all the screenshots advertising the game include panty shots of the female characters. The breast physics on display as you spin the character around in the creator or even when your character simply stops from walking is a tad excessive.
However boobies and ultra violence do sell in NA. And sadly a lot of the male target audience will eat the look of this game up. Now whether they stay subscribed is a different story. Unsure what income model NCSoft is planning on for it's release in NA. It might do okay if it's like GW2, buy the game plus cash shop.
As for WoW, only naive investors still believe a new MMO could get WoW numbers. Today is a different time from 2004. There are more titles, less money and even more choices to split our discretionary time. It would be like someone wanting a new TV show to get 1980 viewership.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet