NCsoft Corporation to Sell Entire Shares of NC Interactive Inc.

[Atlantea]

This certainly seems like big news of SOME kind. Like the rest of you, I'm having difficulty understanding exactly WHAT it means.

But - correct me if I'm wrong, but at first glance it appears to boil down to two broad possibilities -

- NCSoft could be distancing themselves from the Western Market. or at least distancing the UPPER MANAGEMENT in Korea from the Western Market.

It may be too optimistic to consider seriously, but I have to ask the question anyway - could they FINALLY have seen the light about the Western market and the new entity is going to be ALLOWED to manage their Western games in a Western fashion without the micro-management from the top?

Or are they preparing to simply CLOSE DOWN operations entirely? And yes - I do mean that in the way it sounds - shutting down GW1, GW2, and Carbine Studios development on Wildstar. And they just GIVE UP and go back to Korea and not even worry about the fallout over here?

The stupid is strong with them - but is it THAT strong?


- Or - could this be a prep for a buyout of all their western operations by another company? (Please dear GOD DON'T LET IT BE Electronic Arts!)

More information is most definitely needed!

[corvus1970]

This is not a thing that a corporation the size of NCSoft does arbitrarily and at a moment's notice.  They've been meeting, brainstorming, crunching numbers, and weighing the options for some time now.

See, that's what I was thinking. There's no way a move of this size was a sudden thing.

[Triplash]

note: 404th post ! don't read it !

Don't read what? I can't find anything.

[corvus1970]

Don't read what? I can't find anything.

DUDE! LOL! Very nicely done. You've just become my favorite person of the day!

[TonyV]

That changes everything.  They shoulda just said 50.5 billion and then I wouldn't have been stupid.

/sidenote

They may have worded it the way they did because a "billion" in the U.S. and a "billion" in the U.K. (historically, this is changing) are two different numbers.  What we call a billion, for a really long time, they called a "thousand million."  So "50 thousand million" in theory should be non-ambiguous.  I don't know that's why they worded it that way, but it would make sense.

[dwturducken]

That and couple of other things make me think the Reuters piece is a translation picked off some wire service. Just oddities in wording, really.

[FatherXmas]

NCSoft is essentially selling/spinning off NC Interactive, forming an independent company that will now license NCSoft's titles under some likely royalty scheme like they do in most of their Asian markets.  This new entity will still be in charge of translation/adaptation of said properties as well as marketing them in the region and running the service.

This doesn't include ArenaNet and unless clarified, Carbine Studios.  This is just the NA publishing face of NCSoft games.  As I said earlier this may have been an additional reason to close down Paragon because it was the only developer that reported to NC Interactive so no transfer of IP is involved in this spinoff.

Now NC Interactive had a history of losing money according to the previous quarterly reports once the heyday of CoH and GW wore off until GW2 came out.  That turnabout shows to me at least that moneys from box sales go though NC Interactive first, acting like a publisher.  My point being that from now on, if NCSoft's various properties over here fail to pull in enough money to keep this new company open, oh well, it's not NCSoft's fault.

[Mister Bison]

Page 10 of NCSoft november 2012 global earnings report: NC Interactive is a subsidiary of NCSoft (maybe that's not the "NC Interactive Inc." that they are selling)
bottom of the city of heroes sunset page City of Heroes is copyright NC Interactive Inc.
whatever company that buys all these shares will annex "NC Interactive Inc.", along with City of Heroes and all the other past present and future IPs they hold, as their subsidiary.

tl;dr, it's clear, they are selling City of Heroes along with everything US-related. To who, remains a question. If it's another subsidiary, nothing new.

Now NC Interactive had a history of losing money according to the previous quarterly reports once the heyday of CoH and GW wore off until GW2 came out.  That turnabout shows to me at least that moneys from box sales go though NC Interactive first, acting like a publisher.  My point being that from now on, if NCSoft's various properties over here fail to pull in enough money to keep this new company open, oh well, it's not NCSoft's fault.

read the earnings report, NC Interactive is their biggest cash earner.

[Atlantea]

Or it could be something as simple as them being aware that the NCSoft name is so poisoned in the US that they need to 'form a new company' to hide behind.

[Celtic Lass]

For the record, this has not escaped my attention, but I literally just found out about it.  I don't know exactly what it means, I'm still working on parsing it and figuring out what's going on.  Obviously, if this presents an opportunity for City of Heroes to be acquired by a third party, we will be all over it.  If not, we'll still keep on keepin' on.

They had to have been known about this before the announcement of the shutdown of CoX...  just wish I knew what they know.

[dwturducken]

Page 10 of NCSoft november 2012 global earnings report: NC Interactive is a subsidiary of NCSoft (maybe that's not the "NC Interactive Inc." that they are selling)
bottom of the city of heroes sunset page City of Heroes is copyright NC Interactive Inc.
whatever company that buys all these shares will annex "NC Interactive Inc.", along with City of Heroes and all the other past present and future IPs they hold, as their subsidiary.

tl;dr, it's clear, they are selling City of Heroes along with everything US-related.
read the earnings report, NC Interactive is their biggest cash earner.

Let's try to keep the fonts Fun Sized, shall we? We have more than a few in the Bifocals Set, here.

It's still vague as to whether the sale is an actual sale or just a "clever" disguise for more of their supposed corporate restructuring.

[Mister Bison]

Let's try to keep the fonts Fun Sized, shall we? We have more than a few in the Bifocals Set, here.

It's still vague as to whether the sale is an actual sale or just a "clever" disguise for more of their supposed corporate restructuring.

Sorry about the size, should have bolded it instead, will be edited in a minute. But read the OP's link, they are selling all their shares, NC Interactive is their subsidiary, hence any investor who gets a lion's share of the shares... ahem (^^') will own the firm. At least as much as I understand capitalism.

[Celtic Lass]

Or it could be something as simple as them being aware that the NCSoft name is so poisoned in the US that they need to 'form a new company' to hide behind.

As far as poisoned goes, one just needs to check out their Korean Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/7njwdgc
They haven't updated in quite some time, nor replied to any of the venom posted there.

Let's try to keep the fonts Fun Sized, shall we? We have more than a few in the Bifocals Set, here.

It's still vague as to whether the sale is an actual sale or just a "clever" disguise for more of their supposed corporate restructuring.

Exactly what I was thinking.

[FatherXmas]

read the earnings report, NC Interactive is their biggest cash earner.

Yes in 3Q.  In 2009 it loss 3,600 million KrW, in 2010 it loss 13,631 million KrW and in 2011 it loss 24,774 million KrW.

In 1Q in 2012 it loss 6,409 million KrW and 2Q it loss 7,798 million KrW.  Even 3Q with it's huge sales, it loss 462 million KrW.

I have all of NCSoft's earnings reports mate.  I'm looking at the Equity Method Gain/Loss which shows the profit/loss of each subsidiary.  Having the biggest sales means little if you are spending more than you take in.

[Kheprera]

bottom of the city of heroes sunset page City of Heroes is copyright NC Interactive Inc.
whatever company that buys all these shares will annex "NC Interactive Inc.", along with City of Heroes and all the other past present and future IPs they hold, as their subsidiary.

tl;dr, it's clear, they are selling City of Heroes along with everything US-related.
read the earnings report, NC Interactive is their biggest cash earner.

" ©2004–2012 NC Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. City of Heroes, City of Heroes Going Rogue, City of Villains, City of Heroes Freedom, Paragon City, Rogue Isles, Paragon Market, Paragon Points, Paragon Studios, NCSOFT, the Interlocking NC Logo, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCSOFT Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners."

 
No.  NCSoft owns the IP.  It will be their decision to include the IP in the sale.

I'm withholding any hope.  I'm not sure I see this as a good thing.  My experience when companies pull shenanigans it's the beginning of the end. 

Anyone who works for NCSoft in any way should brush off their resumé and start looking.

[Valjean]

Sorry about the size, should have bolded it instead, will be edited in a minute. But read the OP's link, they are selling all their shares, NC Interactive is their subsidiary, hence any investor who gets a lion's share of the shares... ahem (^^') will own the firm. At least as much as I understand capitalism.

That investor who owns the lion's share is NCsoft.

[Mister Bison]

" ©2004–2012 NC Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. City of Heroes, City of Heroes Going Rogue, City of Villains, City of Heroes Freedom, Paragon City, Rogue Isles, Paragon Market, Paragon Points, Paragon Studios, NCSOFT, the Interlocking NC Logo, and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCSOFT Corporation. Cryptic Studios is a trademark of Cryptic Studios, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners."

 
No.  NCSoft owns the IP.  It will be their decision to include the IP in the sale.

NCSoft holds a handful of names, true. But that's the difference between copyright and trademark. Rename the game, Paragon City and the Rogue isles, because they are NCSoft trademark. But Statesman, Recluse, their models, the maps, the story, etc, they are all held by NCSoft Interactive. Honestly, if I have to play Heroes vs Villains that happens in Titan City and Phoenix Isles, but I get to train with Miss Liberty and hit Tyrant and Hamidon, I'm all in. What about you ?

That investor who owns the lion's share is NCsoft.

For now. NCSoft is going to sale all their shares, what would be left to them ? Except if they sold it to another subsidiary...

[dwturducken]

I meant to put a smiley on that, Bison. Sorry. It's not like I'm a redname. I was mostly just yankin' your chain.

[FatherXmas]

Okay, here's a better picture of what's going on.  According to this they are spinning off NC Interactive, ArenaNet and Carbine Studios into a holding company.  The reason?  "... a more rapid decision-making in the rapidly changing North American and European markets, further strengthen the independence and accountability of the organization is to go on ..." (pardon Google Translate's Engrish).

[Mister Bison]

I meant to put a smiley on that, Bison. Sorry. It's not like I'm a redname. I was mostly just yankin' your chain.

No no no, it did look ugly when quoted. Size is an absolute attribute, and quoting lowers it, but anything in [size][/ size] gets put back to its size it seems. And nothing is printed in different inline sizes for a reason.