NCSoft fronts 3 new game titles in RPG, MMO, multiplatform genres

NCSoft has unveiled three new game titles in diverse genres to expand its revenue streams and move away from its Lineage franchise.

NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin speaks to the press at the G-Star 2023 game festival at Busan's Bexco on Thursday. [NCSOFT]

BUSAN — Game publisher NCSoft is seeking new revenue streams by fronting three new game titles in diverse genres, in an effort to escape the long shadow of its massively popular Lineage franchise.

The company brought seven new titles to the G-Star 2023 game festival, and will front three of those projects for visitors to try out for the first time.

NCSoft founder Kim Taek-jin personally visited the company booth at Bexco, Busan, on Thursday, taking the stage to answer questions from the press. It was the first time in eight years since the company participated in annual game festival.

“I hope gamers are satisfied with the quality of NCSoft games when they visit our booth, here for the first time in eight years,” Kim said. “As you are aware, the company came to meet the players with new genres that we’re trying out, not with our conventional Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game [MMORPG].”

The three latest titles are: role-playing game (RPG) Project BSS, massively multiplayer online (MMO) shooting game LLL and multiplatform game Battle Crush.

“For LLL, the developers deliberated on what we can show to the players for the MMO shooting genre in a console market,” Kim said. “Project BSS and Battle Crush are causal games targeted at light players.”

LLL is a sci-fi horror genre set in a dystopian Seoul, where monsters have torn the city apart. The players’ mission lies in shooting the monsters to protect the city. With high-quality graphics, the backdrop of the city is instantly recognizable to any Seoulites or gamers interested in Korea — the streets of Gangnam, the heart of the capital, and the areas near Coex convention center and Bongeunsa Station.

The game will be available on PC and console. NCSoft is targeting the global market with this project.

“We chose this specific location as the base ground because we thought the area was unique for the global market, with a fusion of high-tech and traditional buildings,” said the project leader Bae Jae-hyun. “We are aiming to launch a closed beta test next year.”

Battle Crush is the first NCSoft game with cross-play support, not only on Steam and Google Android, but also on Nintendo Switch. Scheduled for release by the first half of next year, the game revolves around gods and goddesses from ancient Greek and Norse mythology fighting against each other for the survival of the fittest, using their own set of skills and superpowers.

A maximum of 30 players can simultaneously play the game across PC, mobile and Nintendo Switch.

“From the multiple global closed beta test we conducted earlier, we saw that there were no gameplay differences between the three platforms,” said the game developer Kim Min-sung. “However, we did receive feedback that we need improvement on keyboard and mouse controls, which we’ll perfect by the time we officially launch the game.”

RPG project BSS is also slated to launch next year. The project’s storyline is derived from the company’s MMORPG Blade & Soul. However, the developers emphasize that the timeline is set three years prior to the original game and revolves around a completely different protagonist named Yoo Seol, and the plot is easy to follow for any gamer not familiar with Blade & Soul.

The protagonist goes on an adventure to fight enemies and collect heroes to up her skills. There are 60 heroes that the protagonist can collect throughout the game, and they can use skill sets from a maximum of five characters that they choose from in a duel.

“Although the details of the game’s business model has not been set yet, the players will eventually be able to collect the heroes through gameplays and the charged items will shorten the time span [of collecting heroes],” said the project leader Koh Ki-hwan.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]