Gamesbeat Summit 2025: The East-West Connection with NC America from Jeonghee “JJ” Jin

Jeonghee “JJ” Jin spent her career in helping Asian studios to expand in the West. Become CEO of NCARICA Less than a year ago, she recently added a new role to her COO: COO from NCSoft West, responsible for the company’s initiatives in the Western market.

At Gamesbeat Summit 2025 in Los Angeles, Jane spoke with Niko Partners Lisa Cosmas Hanson about her new initiative and challenges to bring games from east to west and vice versa.

Jin said: “NC West is the Holding Company for Arenanet, to NC West, Arenanet and Guild Wars, which is the most important business – we really want to grow more,” Jin said. “Recently, the headquarters wanted to make it more formal and give me another hat to wear so that I could do more officially for NC West and Arenanet, where I worked more in all fields for all Western subsidies.

“So with this new role, I think I can work more strategically in all fields, create more synergy and build the strength of our brand worldwide and also find more commercial opportunities for NCSOFT in the West.”

Her experience in Korea and the United States gave her a unique perspective about localizing games for different markets. When I was asked about the type of advice that you will give to the smaller studios trying to move in the challenges across the border, she said that above all, it is important to find a publisher who believes in your game and will work hard to link them.

She remembered that when she was in a similar position earlier in her career, she did not like how her team would talk at times to a publisher who seemed really excited about his game, but after signing a deal, they ended up working with a “random person” they had never met before. She said it is important to know who you are working with and have a personal contact with this person or team.

Jin said: “If you are looking for a publisher, I want to advise you to find a partner who has a truly enthusiastic team your game, which knows about this type (your (your), which he really wants to get.” “Not just a work team or a license team that must do some deals.”

On Next era of games – Like new artificial intelligence technologies and take advantage of emerging markets – Jin said she loves to pay attention to what she calls “soft side issues”. For her, this means relationship, passion, society and Vandum.

She believes that since games have become more important like a hobby (not only by playing but also through more people watching tables and videos), contacts between fans are something that companies should focus on with social features inside and outside the games. It is important for companies to have a good relationship with their community, and this is where she plays emotion – she always tells their team to carefully look at the player’s feelings.

“These days, emotions are very important. You really want to understand what the players feel because I think there are a lot of good games that contain almost idealistic features, mechanics and game styles,” she said, while highlighting the difficulty of competition.

Listening to players can actually happen with a big difference in this market. She said that companies must also spend time to understand the specific audience that targets them and how to meet their needs, which may help them build a prosperous society around their game.

“So I think all of these ingredients are really important when I see the last trends and how, especially the younger generation, who are already playing their games,” Jin said.

Make sure to review the full video of more ideas from the Gamesbeat Summit panel.