With NCsoft’s Blade & Soul having just launched in China, I guess it is no surprise that NCsoft’s elusive CEO, Mr Taek Jin Kim (below, left), appeared yesterday at Tencent Games Carnival 2013. In a rare and candid interview, he talked about both Blade & Soul and Lineage Eternal.
Here are some of the highlights of the interview, which are actually quite brief in nature:
1. It has been 8 years since Blade & Soul started development, and Mr Taek Jin Kim is glad to see how popular the game is in China. This also broke the “curse” where people were saying NCsoft games will not do well in China.
Personal note: Aion China is still under Shanda Games, sticking still to the old pay to play model. Publishing rights for Lineage 1 and Lineage 2 have now switched from Shanda Games to Tencent Games as well. Shanda Games is 1 crap company, in my opinion.
2. When asked about Tencent Games publishing Lineage Eternal, a Tencent staff quickly mentioned that this is business secret and it is not convenient to answer. However, Mr Taek Jin Kim said that through working with Tencent on Blade & Soul, both parties now know better on how to provide better content for players.
3. Mr Taek Jin Kim mentioned that Lineage Eternal is still in development, and the process of developing Blade & Soul has been a great help.
Personal note: I am 100% sure Tencent Games will be the China publisher of Lineage Eternal.
4. Mr Taek Jin Kim reiterated that NCsoft’s core focus will still be on client games, rather than mobile games. While other developers claim that the client games market is “cold”, he is adamant it is because they only stopped at the “OK” level, and success will only arrive if they make the best client games possible.
