According to foreign reports, Mr Park, the Development Director (or Chief Producer etc) for Bluehole Studio’s maiden MMORPG, TERA, resigned on 29th July last week. This decision was said to be due to the game not meeting expectations and hitting planned targets. Korea gamers are also very verbal in showing their unhappiness towards the state of the game, in addition to sliding popularity and “ghost” servers, contributing to Mr Park’s resignation as well.
Mr Park was part of the group which left MMO giant NCsoft to join Bluehole Studio and was apparently the central figure in the lawsuit between the 2 companies, where Bluehole Studio was accused of using ideas for Lineage 3 to work on TERA. Mr Park was also in-charge of Lineage 3’s development and hence accused of leaking business secrets. It was written that the lawsuit has also taken a toll on Mr Park’s health both physically and mentally.
Bluehole Studio’s top executives have claimed that they did everything they could to persuade Mr Park to stay, but to no avail as he was ready at his limit. The board hence respected his decisions and accepted the resignation. However, Mr Park still retains shares in Bluehole Studio as one of the biggest shareholders. The development team will not be shuffled and find a suitable replacement to get TERA back up on its feet.
