NCsoft is a South Korean based online computer game company. NCsoft has become most famous for developing and publishing Lineage, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of registered users.

NCsoft was originally founded in March 1997 by Tack Jin Kim, who had been famous for developing a Korean word processor program called Hangul, as a business software developer. One of the company's first products was NC HTML Editor. In September 1998, NCsoft launched its first and most popular game, Lineage. The success of this game helped the company expand to locations in Taiwan, China, Japan, and the United States.

The company established a US subsidiary called NCsoft Austin (based in Austin, Texas) as a partnership with Richard Garriott's Destination Games in April 2001. Jake Song also moved to Austin in order to stimulate development. The branch develops MMORPGs and acts as the home to NC Interactive, NCsoft's division for support in North America (which had been established in May 2000).

NCsoft developed Lineage II and released it in South Korea on October 1, 2003, and in the United States on April 28, 2004. NCsoft is also the publisher for the MMORPG City of Heroes (developed by Cryptic Studios) and Guild Wars (ArenaNet).

Launched in July 2004, NCsoft Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary with its main office in London. They brought City of Heroes to several European countries on February 4th 2005 and have announced Lineage II for a later date.

External link

• NCsoft site (in English)