Year of Foundation : March 11, 1997 Chief Executive Officer : Kim, Tack Jin Capital : 9.4 billion won Number of Employees : 1,430 Stock List : Kosdaq Stock exchange (KOSPI : 03657
NCsoft Corporation Established in 1997, NCsoft® Corporation has quickly become the world*s leading online game developer and publisher with offices in Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, Thailand, Great Britain and the United States. In 1998, NCsoft launched its flagship product, Lineage®. Today Lineage has simultaneous connections in the hundreds of thousands in its top territories. Lineage II, launched in 2004, continues the game series' massively popular status with nearly 2 million active accounts and simultaneous connections in excess of 110,000 in Korea alone. Together, Lineage and Lineage II have reached more than 50 million customers worldwide. In 2000, NCsoft made its initial public stock offering, and as of 2003 is traded on the Korean Stock Exchange under the listing KSE: 036570.KS. The company expanded to North America in 2001, when Richard and Robert Garriott, legendary founders of Origin Systems, joined forces with NCsoft to create and publish innovative new online gaming products. NCsoft has since established offices in Texas, California and Washington state, and created relationships with third party developers across the United States with some of the best and brightest online game development talent in the world. Achieving success in each market it enters, NCsoft has continued to grow, opening offices in Europe in late 2004. Highlighting NCsoft*s activities in North America is the launch of two premiere titles in April 2004, Lineage II and City of Heroes® 每 on the same day! NCsoft is the only company so far to ever launch two large-scale massively multiplayer titles in one day#and with no major technological issues or server downtime. In April 2005 the company launched its fourth online title in North America and Europe, the highly anticipated Guild Wars®. And on Halloween 2005, NCsoft launched City of Villains™. In early 1006, NCsoft added to its successful and wide ranging catalogue when in early 2006 it launched City of Hero in Asia and the worldwide releases of Auto Assault™, and Guild Wars Factions™, the popular second installment of the Guild Wars franchise. NCsoft is well positioned for continued success in all of its markets with the right infrastructure and excellent products. Lineage II, City of Heroes, City of Villains and Guild Wars have gained critical acclaim throughout the gaming industry both in the press and at retail. Upcoming titles include Tabula Rasa™ and Aion™ which are anticipated to push the massively multiplayer online gaming industry forward by providing extensive, high-quality content that the gaming public has come to expect from NCsoft. The company anticipates opening additional global markets for NCsoft*s online games in coming years, as well as products in new genres and on new entertainment platforms. More information about NCsoft Corporation can be found on the company*s website at http://www.ncsoft.net/eng. Learn more about NCsoft-North America at http://www.PlayNC.com.
NCsoft Corporation Executive BiosKorean (HQ) team Tack Jin Kim, President and CEO
Tack Jin (TJ) Kim has served as NCsoft Corporation*spresident and CEO since founding the company in 1997.He has grown the company into a multinationalcorporation with offices in the United States, Taiwan,China, Japan, Thailand and the United Kingdom. Prior toestablishing NCsoft, TJ co-developed Hangul, theKorean word processor, and founded a softwaredevelopment company called Hanmesoft. He also headedthe development of Korea*s first Internet service, Aminet(currently Shinbiro) at Hyundai Electronics. His goal forNCsoft is to create the highest quality onlineentertainment products that ※enrich the lives of ourcustomers.§TJ has enjoyed much success and recognition for hismany contributions to the online sector. In 2001, he wasawarded &The Stars of Asia: Entrepreneurs* by BusinessWeek and was selected as one of 25 influential in the ebusinessworld. In 2002, the WEF (World EconomicForum) named him as one of 18 &Asian leadingmembers,* and in January 2005, he was appointed as amember of &the forum of young global leaders.*
Jaeho Lee, CFO & Vice President for Operation Unit
Lee Jaeho joined NCsoft Corporation in 2004. As CFO incharge of financial management and investor relations, heleads the Operation Unit, which includes the company*sfinance, business management, public relations and humanresources organizations. Lee uses a wealth of experience infinance and business to ensure NCsoft*s firm financialstructure and ability to advance the company*s globalbusiness.Before joining NCsoft, he led a mergers and acquisitionsteam at Samsung Securities, brokering such deals as SeoulBank and Chohung Bank. Lee was awarded the &BestDomestic M&A Deal of theYear* by Finance Asiaconsecutively in 2003 and 2004. Other prior experienceincludes six years at Arthur Andersen, managingpeacekeeping-related financial services at the UnitedNations (UN), business consultancy for affiliates of a UNexecutive office, and CFO at the IT consulting firmOpenTide.
NCsoft Corporation Executive BiosKorean (HQ) team Page 2 of 2 Chris Chung, Vice President, Publishing Unit
After having a life long interest in games and the gamesindustry, Chris Chung finally got the opportunity in 2003with NCsoft. He began his time in the games industry as thebusiness manager for ArenaNet, an NCsoft company thatdeveloped the hit online title, Guild Wars. Chris is now vicepresident of Publishing Unit for NCsoft, where he managesbusiness leads for all of NCsoft*s games. Then he joinedNCsoft North America in 2004 and served as vice presidentof game publishing for NCsoft Nort ran his ownmarketing research company and spent more than fice yearsat Microsoft.h America for a yearand a half. Prior to joining NCsoft, Chris
NCsoft North America 每 Executive Team Bios Robert Garriott, CEO
Robert Garriott has been CEO of NCsoft North America since May 2001. Prior to joining NCsoft, he was President of Origin Systems, which he co-founded with Richard Garriott in 1983. In 1992, Electronic Arts acquired Origin. Robert stayed on with EA as vice president of business development and later senior vice president of product development. He left EA in 1995 to pursue personal interests. Robert and his brother Richard co-founded another game company, Destination Games, in 2000. Robert joined NCsoft Corporation as President of its North American offices when it merged with Destination Games in 2001.
Dorothy Ferguson, Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Dorothy Ferguson joined NCsoft in 2003 as director of sales. Promoted to vice president of sales in 2004, Dorothy is responsible for NCsoft*s retail/distribution channel organization and management for the company*s growing product lineup in North America. She also oversees third party OEM and strategic partnership opportunities with leading players in the hardware and accessories space, as well as broadband and entertainment. In 2005, she agreed to head the NCsoft*s marketing group as well. Dorothy has worked in the games industry for 17 years with previous positions held at Interplay Entertainment, Maxis, Davidson & Associates and The Learning Company.
Fred Schmidt, Vice President,Strategic Development
Fred Schmidt has served as a publishing executive in the business of games for 20 years, where he has been instrumental in the launch strategies of more than 30 AAA titles and three top development/publishing companies. He joined NCsoft in June 2003 to help build the company*s full-scale North American publishing organization. Previously, Fred worked as vice president of business development at Origin Systems where he set up U.S. and European publishing operations. He then served as the company*s vice president and general manager until after its merger with Electronic Arts. Prior to Origin, Fred was vice president of marketing at MicroProse Software beginning in 1985. Fred has consulted in business development matters for many independent developers of quality game titles over the years, and has owned or managed several diversified entertainment companies outside of the games business.
Chris Mayer, Vice President, Product Development
Chris Mayer has been with NCsoft since March of 2005 and currently oversees all product development in North America published under the NCsoft brand. Over the past year, Chris served as the Chief Technical Officer for NCsoft North America. In that position he was responsible for developing, gathering, and maintaining reusable technology for all game development teams working with NCsoft and for researching new technology that development teams may use. Before joining NCsoft, Chris has held lead programmer and lead server programmer positions at Electronic Arts and Sony Online Entertainment on various online game projects including Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies.
NCsoft Europe 每 Executive Team Bios Geoff Heath - CEO From a successful career in the music business, Heath*s first break in the computer and video games industry came from Activision. Here, Heath was given the opportunity to build the European division of Activision where he became the first Brit in the industry to bring over US products. After helping make Ghostbusters a giant hit, Heath took his skills to Virgin Mastertronic. It was not long before Heath*s relationships touched the investment community and he was offered board positions. The strong US relationships Heath had built up meant that he was the safe pair of hands charged with stewardship of Mindscape where he continued his US liaison. After leaving Mindscape, Heath took on the role of Non-Executive Chairman of Climax and, intrigued by technological progress and the trust of former colleagues, in 2004 he was drawn back into the thick of the industry when he took hold of the reins at the nascent NCsoft Europe. Sebastien Vidal 每 COO Vidal started his career in the games industry as a journalist in the mid-90s before moving to France Telecom*s game division where he worked on their gaming and matchmaking web platform. In 2002, he worked on the launch of Dark Age of Camelot, the first successful and localised MMORPG in Europe and eventually headed up France Telecom*s online operations. In 2004, Vidal joined NCsoft Europe as Chief Operating Officer. Thomas Bidaux - Director of Product Development Prior to joining NCsoft Europe, Bidaux was heavily involved in the development and execution of online games at Wanadoo, where he led the team that launched Dark Age of Camelot. Bidaux was one of the original four who set up NCsoft Europe in September 2004. As the company expands, Bidaux*s role at NCsoft is to manage the product development teams, covering localisation and QA, as well as researching and acquiring new titles. Sean Kang 每 Director of Strategic Planning Kang achieved a double major BS in Industrial Management and History & Policy in 1995 at the Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, PA USA). He spent the next few years in international management consulting until joining the NCsoft Korea office in 2001. As Head of New Territory Development, Kang has been finding and negotiating Joint Venture Partner deals. He was also responsible for researching and launching into global markets, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and, perhaps most importantly, helping to establish NCsoft Europe. He joined the European operation in early 2005 as Director of Strategic Planning. Dirk Metzger 每 Marketing Director Metzger graduated from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1998 with a BA and went on to do an MA at University of Royal Holloway which he completed in 1999. Before joining NCsoft Europe in 2005, Metzger had been working within the youth, entertainment and games marketing industry for five years. He worked with Nintendo on the online launch for GameCube and GBA, managed marketing campaigns for the likes of Sony Electronics Europe and Universal Studios. He*s also worked with Xbox on promotional campaigns for their Xbox Live service and various product launches. Max Brown 每 Sales & Operations Director From a successful career in the printing industry, Brown*s first break in the computer and video games industry came from Mindscape, joining Geoff Heath as Operations Manager. Over the eight years with Mindscape, he released titles from both Origin and Maxis before their acquisition by EA. After leaving Mindscape he had several non-executive positions with GT International, MMI Holland and Tring plc. Brown was then drawn back into the thick of the industry at the request of Geoff Heath as Sales & Ops Director for NCsoft Europe in 2004. Paul Bone - CFO Bone graduated from Lancaster University in 1997, qualifying as a chartered accountant three years later. He then headed up the business support services department at Arram Berlyn Gardner, with responsibility for assisting businesses by providing management accounts, VAT services and advice on strategy. NCsoft Europe was one of his clients and in 2004 Bone made the transition over to working for the company full-time as Financial Controller, and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in 2005. Stuart Wright 每 IT Director Wright graduated from Birmingham University in 1994 and began working as an Operations Manager for a Sussex based IT services firm where he gained in-depth Cisco, Microsoft, HP and Intel accreditations. He left that role to work as an IT contractor for large organisations in London and the South East where he continued to gain vast experience in technological business strategy. Wright is a lifelong and passionate gamer and when, in 2004, the opportunity to join NCsoft Europe arose he had no hesitation in accepting the position of IT Manager. Since then the IT Department, along with NCsoft Europe as a whole, has seen substantial growth and, in 2005, Wright was promoted to the role of IT Director.
Dragonica is NCSOFT's new project first unveiled on Korea G-star. Dragon dev team spent seven years in designing Dragonica which follows its predecessor`s storyline of but overturns its connotation, bringing cartoon side-scrolling action online games to a new peak. Its totally 3D rendering design, fresh cartoon characters and scenery modeling, creat a new visual perception of side-scrolling games;
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle is the sequel to one of the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) titles worldwide. Set 150 years before Lineage, as the kingdom of Aden becomes a unified state, Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle is designed to show the struggles that take place during a time where several provinces come under one rule. In this world, players fight for control over any and every piece of the new kingdom. The game features more of the combat and player vs. player battles that made the original Lineage so popular. But beyond combat, the game features sophisticated political, economic, and social systems to keep up intrigue and dramatic power struggles in the game world.
The world of Lineage: The Blood Pledge sets a stage for combat, interaction, and character development. At first glance, Lineage: The Blood Pledge is reminiscent of titles like Baldur's Gate or Diablo II, featuring an isometric perspective on 2D "sprite" characters in detailed, hand-painted background environments. Separate pop-up menu windows for character information, inventory management, and spells are another common feature. While these other successful role-playing games may feature some multiplayer options, however, online play is the primary focus of Lineage and this game does not support single-player adventuring.
MMO designed by several team members from Blizzard's StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo and the Battle.net® gaming network. Unique to Guild Wars is a skill-based gameplay system, a social world with each quest spawned uniquely for you and your group, and online play run through a special ArenaNet system to provide absolutely free MMO gameplay.
There's never been a better time to be a hero! City of Heroes™ brings the world of comic books alive in the first PC massively multiplayer online game of its kind. Players choose from hundreds of powers to define their hero's incredible abilities with a truly limitless combination of costumes and powers. Whether adventuring on solo missions or teaming up with other heroes for nonstop action, players control their own destiny as they root out and vanquish the sources of evil that plague Paragon City.
Won 2nd prize at the 1st Excellent Kosdaq Companies (issued by the Korean IR Association),2001 Won Industrial Award at the Soft Expo Digital Content fair, 2001 Won Grand prize at the Small & Medium Communication Enterprise Awards (Ministry of Information and Communication),2001
Won Grand prize at the 1st Korean Culture Contents Export Award ,2002 Received the Prize of Minister of Information and Technology in the 3rd Communication Enterprise Digital Award ,2002 Won title of the Best Exporting Enterprise at the Korean Game Awards ,2002
Nominated as the best privacy protecting enterprise by the Korean Information and Communication Association 2003 Won Presidential Award at the 4th Information and Communication Digital Awards 2003
Nominated as the best NSCI company in MMORPG,2004
NCsoft, Selected as &Developer/Published of the Year* by RPG Vault,2005
8.2 out of 10 - Game Zone
Lineage II received the Presidential Award at the 2003 Korean Game Awards by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
7.8 out of 10 -IGN 8.1 out of 10 - Game Zone 8.0 out of 10 - All RPG Lineage™ wins the first place in the '98 Korean Game Awards
9.2 out of 10-Gamespot 9 out of 10 -IGN 4.5 out of 5-Gamespy Editor*s Choice - IGN Editor*s Choice -Gamespot winner of online game of 1st quarter of year 2005 in Digital Content Award 2003 E3 Sleeper Hit Award
MMORPG Game of the Year -Computer Gaming World MMORPG Game of the Year - Spike TV PC Game of the Year - GameSpy Multiplayer Game of the Year&PC or Console Game of the Year -- Billboard 2004 Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards Award for Excellence - Wargamer Game of the Year 2004 -Games Magazine Editor*s Choice - Computer Games MagazineAugust 2004 Issue Computer Gaming World Editor's Choice - August 2004 Hot Property Award - Loadedinc Seal of Excellence - Adrenaline Vault Editor*s Choice - Actiontrip Editor*s Choice - IGN Editor*s Choice - GameSpy Best Online Multiplayer - Game Critics Awards Game Revolution Best of E3 2003 - Best Online Game Game Critics Awards Nominee - Best Online Multiplayer - E3 2002 Best of E3 2002 - Runner Up - Best MMOG -IGN
8.4 out 10 - gamespot 4.5 out of 5 -gamespy 8.4 out of 10 -IGN
Games Developed
PC AlterLife Exteel Lineage II Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness Lineage II DVD Collector's Edition Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle Lineage: The Blood Pledge
Super NES Cybernator
Macintosh Lineage: The Blood Pledge
Genesis Target Earth
Games Published
PC AlterLife Auto Assault City of Heroes City of Heroes Collectors DVD Edition City of Villains City of Villains Collector's Edition Exarch Online Exteel Guild Wars Guild Wars Collector's Edition Lineage II Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness Lineage II DVD Collector's Edition Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle Lineage: The Blood Pledge Tabula Rasa
Macintosh
Lineage: The Blood Pledge
Website:http://www.ncsoft.net Address : 143-8 Seung-kwang Building, Samsung-dong Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea Tel:+80-2-2186-3300 Inquiries on Local Business Lineage : marketing@lineage.co.kr Lineage II : marketing@lineage2.co.kr Inquiries on International Business : international@ncsoft.net Inquiries on PR in the Headquarters (South Korea) : pr@ncsoft.net Inquiries on PR in North America : prna@plaync.com Inquiries on IR : invest@ncsoft.net Inquiries on Jobs : hr@ncsoft.net Inquiries on Website : webmaster@ncsoft.net
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