Just a few days ago, NCsoft’s CEO, Mr Kim Taek Jin, delivered his New Year speech to his company. He stressed that it is time to grow NCsoft into a company bigger than film companies, into a multi-entertainment company.
He also stressed that more games are being developed for smartphones, while NCsoft is still focusing on PC systems and hence, lagging behind. With regards to the proposed NCsoft baseball team, Mr Kim stated that nothing is confirmed at the moment, but is still keen to see the process completed.
In Korea, there are a few companies which have gradually moved beyond the traditional PC games, and a very successful example will be Nexon. Yedang Online, the developer of the Priston Tale series. is also part of a muti-entertainment group with its own stable of singers and actors (even though their gaming development team leaves much to be desired).
Branching out into various realms is much more common with China gaming companies, most notably Perfect World (music, movies, dramas, games, radio etc) and the biggest of them all, Tencent Games.
