In mid-February, NCsoft released its 2021 financial report, and its annual revenue reached 2.31 trillion won (about 12.25 billion yuan), down 4% year-on-year. If you deduct the revenue gain of Netmarble from the acquisition of Bole Technology, NCsoft, which is famous for "Paradise", still ranks as the number one game brand in South Korea.
Still, despite Heaven W's success last year, the company is still trying to shake off its extreme reliance on the IP. Also in February, NCsoft exposed five new IPs of different kinds, covering MMORPGs, interactive movies, action battle royales, collectible RPGs and other types of multi-platform products. In addition, jumping out of the traditional Korean MMO aesthetic and creating global products is also regarded by the company as the focus of the next stage of development.
Just yesterday, NCsoft released five concept videos of "TL (Throne and Liberty)" and "Project E (PE)" in five new IPs. In addition to the gorgeous Korean tour painting style as always, the distinctive Eastern and Western characteristics of the two products also left a deep impression. What's even more amazing is that these two new products tell the story of two different continents in the same worldview.
TL promotes PV
Two stories of a magic stone "smashed" out
In an interview with Korean media, the head of NCsoft said that "TL" was originally set up as a "next generation of "Paradise" products", but in the development process, many original mechanisms and content had to be adjusted or deleted according to the current market trends, which eventually led to the gradual difference between the gameplay and the original game, and transformed into a new original IP. The IP is run by NCsoft's LIGHTBOX House Studios.
"PE" promotes PV
After the fictional War of the Ancient Gods, the magic stone "Star of Siravis" was used to seal the Demon God, but the seal failed, and the sealing stone that condensed powerful energy shattered and scattered all over the planet. Thus, on the continent of Solisium, based on the Western Middle Ages, different races and tribes, including humans, elves and orcs, staged an epic of war for the fragments of the Star of Siravis. This is the background of the story of "TL".
On the continent of Laisak (tentative name), based on the Eastern Middle Ages, the Star of Siravis is known as the "Star of Disillusionment". Several huge disillusionment stars fell here, giving birth to many visions such as sky islands, mysterious lakes, and sacred trees. Here, the elves are called "Nirvana" and the orcs are called "Night Forks.". People learned from Nirvana how to use magic, while the Night Fork waged a massive war to unite their tribes and confront other races. This is the background of the story of "PE".
Through the different naming of the same setting, TL and PE form their own independent game stages on the basis of a shared worldview. The benefit of this approach is to ensure that the two products have a narrative language that is perfectly in line with their respective civilizational styles.
The design team also said that since the early construction of the TL worldview, it has considered applying it to other IPs. Therefore, from the beginning of Genesis, which represents the origin of the world, it has been very meticulously and meticulously set, and the laying out of major events is also considered from the perspective of the entire planet, to ensure that the same event can be interpreted and advanced in completely different ways on two continents.
Also built from a global perspective are maps for two games. As a next-generation MMO, the design team fully considered the impact of space, time and even climate on the topography and landform in the map design, thus laying the foundation for the immersive experience of the game.
Not only the picture quality, but also the experience of the next generation
In order to get rid of the Korean MMO's consistent "good look or not fun" wind comment, "TL" and "PE" that advertise "next-generation MMOs" naturally put a lot of effort into the game experience. According to the official introduction, in "TL", the battle scene will be transformed with the terrain environment, time changes and the characteristics of the boss, and the player can also transform into a specialized animal of water, land and air to move, and if the specialized animal skills are not used, there will even be some areas that cannot be explored.
In addition, environmental factors such as day and night, wind and rain will also have a direct impact on the game. For example, wind direction and speed affect the range of the bow and arrow, while if thunder magic is used in rain, a single attack will have a chain effect, which in turn will turn it into a ranged AOE skill.
In siege warfare, players can also make more strategic combat by making reasonable use of terrain features and surrounding environment. For example, use giant golems to destroy walls, or infiltrate the city through sewers. It is important to note that rainy days can cause water in the sewers to accumulate, making it impossible to dive in. But at the same time, players can also interact with or even change the environment, such as causing a solar eclipse or heavy rain, to make their battle plan smoother.
Compared with the simple slashing gameplay of Korean-style MMO in the past, TL undoubtedly provides a richer and more strategic combat experience. This is also a major leap forward for NCsoft itself.
"PE" is still in the early stage of research and development, so the publicity PV exposed this time has not revealed too many gameplay innovations. However, just the classic Korean samurai style is enough to make players who are tired of playing Western magic MMO shine. The unique sword-holding posture in the East also indicates that even the same slashing behavior will be different from the traditional MMO's action performance and combat experience.
In an interview, the person in charge also said that "TL" is a project created from the beginning to rethink how the next generation of MMOs should make full use of PC and host performance. As a result, the R&D team has put a lot of effort into the immersive design of the game world, and through carefully crafted environments, it hopes that players can constantly experience new things and feel the joy of the TL world.
Played more than a million on the first day, won at the starting line?
While TL and PE have very distinct Eastern and Western characteristics, NCsoft says there is no clear audience division between the two products. The person in charge is confident that if the product itself is good enough, players around the world can become the target audience.
The head of LIGHTBOX House also said that although the figure of Ancient Korean Culture can be seen in the promotional video, this does not mean that "PE" will completely exclude the West. In the world of PE, which has a hint of fantasy, a variety of different cultures can be perfectly blended and unfolded.
Although it sounds a little overconfident, from the reaction of netizens, the two products do have some sense of winning at the starting line in terms of globalization.
YouTube data shows that although it was released for only one day, the number of broadcasts of "TL" and "PE" has exceeded 600,000, and the number of "PE" promotional videos that focus on oriental aesthetics is even slightly higher.
Judging from the linguistic distribution of reviews, TL's Korean and English reviews are roughly 50%, and PE's Korean and English reviews are around 82. But in the comments section of PE, there is an impressive English comment: "Western game developers can't make such good games." As it seems, it seems that Asian players are not the only ones who are tired of playing magic MMO.
Overall, the two-line move is more of a consequence of NCsoft's globalization of next-generation MMO than a means. Whether it is an oriental theme or a Western theme, if you want to get the recognition of players, in the final analysis, you still have to have the quality of the product itself. Therefore, NCsoft did not choose the "one-pot stew" method to forcibly combine Eastern and Western elements in order to seek the so-called universal killing. On the contrary, through two different products with distinct styles, NCsoft has changed the past "kimchi painting style" and brought the Eastern and Western art styles to the extreme, in order to truly bring more choices to players.
According to the plan, the PC and console versions of TL are under full development and are expected to be released globally in the second half of this year. Under the new proposition of the next generation of MMOs, it remains to be seen whether NCsoft can truly get rid of the dependence of "Paradise" and rely on new IP to continue to lead the MMO track in South Korea and even the world.
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