Jeonghee “JJ” Jin spent a lot of time growing Pearl Abyss’ business in the Americas, as he led Pearl Abyss America for almost eight years.

Now he is the CEO of NC America, and, during one of the biggest retrenchments in the game industry, he led the expansion of NCSoft in the West.

In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Jin said that he plans to grow the company’s game business. (NSoft recently made four investments to the KOREAN and European studios. He also expanded the new office in Irvine, California, and experimented with non-MMO genres including the new The “idle MMO” game release. And he used his expertise in Eastern and Western markets to expand in a different way.

Origins

Jin started Pearl Abyss in Feb 2018 as the first employee based in the US The division, Pearl Abyss America, started in August 2018, and he was appointed as CEO of Pearl Abyss America in the same month. Over time, the division grew to 85 people.

South Korean companies are among the largest in the world and they have played a role in the global market for a long time. But they have challenges in publishing and developing in the US and other Western regions.

“I actually personally believe that it is very important to have a local business. It is also good to have a team that supports the local community because the market is obviously different,” said Jin.

“Now, it’s not just a product. W just don’t send it and forget it. We all run a live service game,” Jin said. “It is very important for us to be able to support these live service titles in a continuous way and to do this daily work for all the services that our players will need over time,” Jin said. .

The company spends a lot of time creating meaningful events for the local community.

“I think it’s actually more critical than ever to have a local team or indeed a global team that can really understand the target audience in their regions and also do the right support and action on about the community,” Jin said. “There are mistakes you can easily make when you make decisions about different regions. It’s very important to have a really good team that can support live production and community and marketing.

NCSoft’s beginnings

NCSoft started as an online game company in 1997 in South Korea, and it has created some of the biggest MMORPG franchises in the gaming industry.

“This 27-year-old company launched the original Lineage in 1998. And now NCSoftis one of the world’s leading global publishers,” Jin said. “For me, NCSoft is an amazing company, one of the first in the world to develop MMO games.”

To date, NCSoft games have generated more than 200 million registered users, including more than 100 million who play the Lineage series. NC America is 100% owned by NCSoft, and operates these games as ArenaNet.

“And NC America is the only publishing arm of NCSoft in the West or outside of Asia, and we started it in April 2023,” Jin said. “We’re working to expand our pipeline to more, including titles from independent studios we’ve invested in, and possibly third-party titles as well. We’re excited to grow as a global publisher under NCSoft. NCSoft is like a sleeping giant in the West.

“I’m actually very excited about the future of NCSoft and NC America, the studio,” Jin said.

Part of the job is finding new games for NCSoft to publish or also acquiring new game studios.

“I’m really trying to increase publishing capabilities, our self-publishing capabilities, in-house. But I also work hard at headquarters,” Jin said. “I am talking to the CFO group for investment and acquisition opportunities. And we are looking closely at many Western studios, of course.

EXPANDED

NCSoft recently invested in a Korean Studio called Mistel Games, which is working on a shooter game. The company also acquired the global publishing rights for the title and we also invested in a studio called Virtual Akemi in Europe.

NC America will also promote existing MMORPG franchises such as Blade & Soul, Aion and Lineage.

“They’ve actually been on the market for a long time but the community is still strong,” Jin said.

In fact, last week the company announced Blade & Soul Neo as a remastered version of the original game that came out nine years ago. It’s already in South Korea and now it’s coming to PC in North America and Europe.

“We’ve changed a lot of imagery and combat actions and storylines and everything from the original version for our audience. So I’m excited about it,” said Jin. “We’re also working on other titles based on of major MMO franchise original IPs. I am confident that we can bring the titles to the West for players who truly enjoy the original titles and have some nostalgia for the many game worlds.

NC America includes North America, South America and Europe. Across the regions, there are about 35 people at NCSoft, most of them in Irvine, California. The team is now expanding.

“We want to be agile and work on small to medium-sized projects first. We were formed last year and now we are really in the growth stage. We are hiring more positions, although I don’t want to rush “We don’t have hundreds of job openings. We want to make sure we have a series of plans to grow the team and bring in more projects game production man, management of market project, PR and marketing strategy or community.

Hire people

Jin said the company is looking for people who are gamers and have a passion for games. Jin said that he almost talks to people at the South Korean headquarters almost every day, whether it’s talking to internal studio heads or others.

“It’s very important for me to understand what kind of games they’re trying to make and what the goals are so that I can be a good fit for someone who has to work on it,” he said. “We have a global market now, but it’s not one market. It consists of many different regions combined.”

Teams should have a clear idea of ​​the type of entertainment they are trying to create with their games and how there is a market for the game in the West.

As with the past 2.5 years of layoffs across the game industry, Jin said he feels bad for many publishers and developers, including NCSoft, who have gone through major changes in their organizations. .

“It’s a bad time for a lot of talent in the industry. From nearly 20 years of experience in the video game industry for myself, I’ve always seen the ups and downs. Everyone’s it feels like we’re at the bottom. I’m sure that in the next two years or three to five years, there will be ups and downs. I’m not sure that every company has that time to change. But I think there is a very good opportunity for any big publishers like NCSoft or any other good developers to take advantage of that momentum.

At NCSoft, the company is working on strategy development and making organizational changes for things like strengthening global publishing.

“We are preparing for a better time, and that’s why I decided to join NCSoft,” said Jin.

Jin grew up playing MMOs in South Korea and has been embedded in the West for eight years or so.

“One of my dreams is to also create an excellent workplace for gamers. I really want to build a great studio where game lovers can work on their games and work in communities, he said.