Jeonghee “JJ” Jeong aims to build Americas in NCSoft like she did in Pearl Abyss

Jonghee “JJ” Jin She has spent a significant amount of time growing Pearl Abyss’ business in the Americas, leading Pearl Abyss America for approximately eight years.

She now serves as CEO of NC America, and during one of the gaming industry’s biggest downturns ever, she led NCSoft’s expansion into the West.

In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Jane said she plans to grow the company’s gaming business. (NCSoft recently made four Investments inside Korean and European Studios. It is also expanding into its new office in Irvine, California, and experimenting with non-MMO genres including modern games. “MMO idle” version of the game.. It uses its experience in eastern and western markets to expand in a different way.

Origins

Jane started at Pearl Abyss in February 2018 as the first US-based employee. She started the Pearl Abyss America division in August 2018, and she was named CEO of Pearl Abyss America that same month. Over time, the department has grown to about 85 people.

South Korean companies are among the largest in the world and have played a role in the global market for a long time. But they faced challenges in deployment and development in the United States and other Western regions.

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

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

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

“I think it’s more important now than ever to have a local team or indeed a global team that can really understand the target audience in their regions and also provide the appropriate support and actions on the community side,” Jin said. “There are mistakes you can easily make if you’re making decisions about different areas. It’s very important to have a very good team that can support live production, community and marketing.”

The beginnings of NCSoft

NCSoft began as an online gaming company in 1997 in South Korea, and has produced some of the biggest MMORPG franchises in the gaming industry.

“This 27-year-old company launched the original version of Lineage in 1998. Now NCSoft has become one of the largest global publishing companies,” Jin said. “For me, NCSoft is a very unique company, one of the first companies in the world to develop MMOs.”

To date, NCSoft games have generated over 200 million registered users, including over 100 million who have played the Lineage series. NC America is 100% owned by NCSoft, and operates games like ArenaNet.

“NC America is the only publishing arm of NCSoft in the West or outside Asia, and we started it in April 2023,” Jin said. “We are trying to expand our product line to include more, including titles from independent studios we have invested in, and perhaps also third-party titles. We are keen to grow as a global publisher within NCSoft. NCSoft is like a sleeping giant in the West.”

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

Part of the mission might be finding new games for NCSoft to publish or acquiring new game studios as well.

“I’m really trying to increase the publishing capabilities, our self-publishing capabilities, within the company. But I’m also working very closely with headquarters,” Jin said. “I’m talking to the CFO group about investment and acquisition opportunities. We look closely at a lot of Western studios, of course.

expansion

NCSoft recently invested in a Korean studio called Mistel Games, which is working on a shooting game. The company also acquired the global publishing rights to 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 very long time but the community is still strong,” Jain said.

In fact, the company announced last week Blade & Soul New As a modified version of the original game that was released nine years ago. It has already been released in South Korea and is now coming to PC in North America and Europe.

“We’ve revamped a lot of the visuals, combat actions, story and everything from the original for our fans. So I’m excited about that,” said Jin. “We’re also working on some other titles based on the big original IPs for the MMO franchise. I’m confident we can bring these games to the West for those players who really enjoy the original titles and have some nostalgia for the expansive game worlds.

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

“We want to be smart and work on SMEs first. We were formed last year and are now in the growth phase. We are hiring for a lot of jobs, although I don’t want to grow too fast,” she said. “We don’t have hundreds of jobs.” Job opportunities. We are starting small and want to make sure we have step by step plans to grow the team and bring on more projects. Mostly, we need more people in game production, market project management, public relations and marketing or community strategy.

Hiring people

Jin said the company is looking for people who play games and have a passion for games. Jin said she ends up talking to people at the South Korean headquarters almost every day, whether it’s talking to internal studio heads or others.

“It’s really important for me to understand what kind of games they are trying to make and what the goals are so that I can fit in well with someone who has to work on that,” he said. “We have a global market these days, but it’s not one market. It’s a lot of different regions combined.”

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

As for layoffs in the gaming industry over the past two and a half years, Jane said she felt bad for many publishers and developers, including NCSoft, who have gone through major changes in their organizations.

“It’s been a very bad time for a lot of talented people in the industry. With almost 20 years of experience in the video game industry, I’ve had ups and downs all the time. Everyone says we feel like we’re at the bottom. I’m pretty sure that in two or three years For the next five years, of course, there will be uprisings. I’m not sure every company has this turning point but I think there is a very good opportunity for any big publisher like NCSoft or other good developers to capitalize on this momentum.

At NCSoft, the company has worked to improve strategy and make organizational changes for things like boosting global publishing.

“We are preparing for a better time, which is why I decided to join NCSoft,” said Jin.

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

“One of my dreams is also to create a good workplace for gamers. I really want to build a good studio where gamers can work on their games and work in communities,” she said.