31 December 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Last week, NCsoft completed its sale of NC Interactive Inc., the wholly-owned subsidiary in charge of the South Korean firm’s western operation. Announced alongside the sale was the intention to immediately fund a new operation to take over the former company’s responsibility, simply moving the requirements from Austin, TX to new digs somewhere closer to the company’s development teams on the west coast.
The #SaveCOH campaign has spoken up about the transaction. Unexpectedly, the collection of disgruntled, yet hopeful, gamers have cheered the move. The reasoning is that NCsoft still hasn’t definitively buried City of Heroes, citing NCsoft spokesman Kim Yo-han stating “nothing had been decided on selling the game or other action afterwards.” The group hopes the new company has CoH in mind and will shop around the property.
Mercedes Lackey, the NY Times best-selling author and spokesperson for #SaveCOH, stated
“In light of NCSoft’s recent statements, we hope this move by NCsoft might represent an
opening to find our award-winning, innovative and unique game, a new home.”
I’m not as optimistic.
Full press release from #SaveCOH after the cut. Continue Reading
27 September 2012 | |
iTZKooPA
Had to go old school.
Yeah, it’s back, a rumor about wonder child Valve being bought out. The previous rumor about the beloved developer/publisher/distributor circled around everyone’s favorite punching bag Electronic Arts. Not so much a rumor as a never going to happen, Valve CEO Doug Lombardi said he’d rather see the company and its employees spread across the globe than be gobbled up by the likes of EA. Even if it was a reported $1 billion-plus offer.
This time, the rumor is relevant to the MMOG crowd. News out of South Korea today has placed NCSoft and Nexon working together to gather funds for the fabled acquisition of Valve. According to a South Korean newspaper, the two companies met with Valve in Hawaii after gathering up cash from real estate and stock deals. Even with both powerhouse MMOG companies partnering up, the rumored offer was far shy of EA’s bid, coming in at a paltry $893 million.
Nexon, NCSoft’s largest shareholder, declined to comment on the rumor. NCSoft was more blunt, stating to Polygon that “There is no truth to this rumor.”
Such a merger would make for a ridiculously powerful new company/entity. Nexon would bring to the table 60+ F2P titles and the might of numerous NCSoft properties. Valve would bring western hardcore games like Left 4 Dead, Half-life and Team Fortress 2, not to mention its digital distribution service. We’re talking billions of dollars in revenue yearly coming together.
9 May 2008 | |
LHStaff
Rupture the social networking site aimed at gamers, has been purchased by EA for a reported $30 million. Rupture was founded by Shawn Fanning, creator of Napster and has never gone past the closed Beta phase.
So what does this mean for Rupture and online gamers? We’ll it’s no secret EA is making a push into MMORPGs with its upcoming Warhammer Online and Biowares untitled MMORPG. If EA is able to integrate Rupture into it’s online MMO games, it will give players greater social tools to communicate with guild members and friends when not logged in. Sorta like Steam does with telling you what games your friends are currently playing and giving you the option to chat with them, although Rupture promises to have more features.
Personally, I don’t think this was a good move by EA. I mean this is software that has never gone past closed beta, so it obviously doesn’t work right yet, and they have very few members. For $30 million, why didn’t they just create a new system from the ground up instead of fixing and changing a site that doesn’t really work yet. Can anyone say 2nd internet bubble? After all Shawn Fanning could be the poster boy for the first bubble.
