NCSoft proved that the online fantasy world could be a mass medium in Asia, and through Lineage, Guild Wars and Aion it became one of the few companies to run major MMORPGs on both sides of the Pacific.
History
Kim Taek-jin, a software engineer, founded NCSoft on March 11, 1997, as South Korea was wiring itself with broadband and filling its cities with PC bangs, the internet cafés where a generation would learn to play online. The company's founding bet was on persistent online worlds. It brought in Jake Song, who had designed the earlier Korean MMORPG Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, and on September 3, 1998, launched Lineage, based on Shin Il-sook's fantasy manhwa.
Lineage became a phenomenon. NCSoft reported that it had at one point more than three million subscribers, and by 2006 the franchise had drawn 43 million players. The money funded an expansion west. In April 2001 NCSoft bought Destination Games, headed by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert, and set it up in Austin as NC Interactive, later NCSoft West. In December 2002 it acquired ArenaNet, the Seattle-area studio founded in 2000 by former Blizzard developers Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain.
The 2000s and 2010s brought a long catalog: Lineage II (2003), the superhero MMO City of Heroes (2004, closed 2012), Guild Wars (2005), Garriott's science-fiction Tabula Rasa (2007, closed 2009), Aion (2008), Blade & Soul (2012), Guild Wars 2 (2012) and WildStar (2014, closed 2018). Mobile versions such as Lineage M and Lineage W kept the flagship lucrative. Throne and Liberty launched in Korea in December 2023, with Amazon Games publishing it in the West.
Falling revenue brought upheaval. NCSoft closed its Ntreev Soft subsidiary in January 2024, approved a corporate split-off plan that November, and in February 2025 launched four specialist subsidiaries, including NC AI, while cutting about a tenth of its staff. Aion 2 followed in November 2025, and on April 2, 2026, the company changed its name to NC.
Notable work
Lineage built its world around castles and clans. Players organized into blood pledges, fought to seize fortresses and taxed the towns below, and its open player-versus-player combat made every siege a political event. It was the Korean counterpart to Ultima Online and EverQuest, and the dominant online world in its home market.
Guild Wars took the opposite approach: no monthly fee, heavily instanced missions and a deck-like skill system often compared to collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering. Its successor, Guild Wars 2, launched on August 28, 2012, and remains ArenaNet's flagship. Aion and Blade & Soul carried NCSoft's lavish, high-fantasy style to Western players.
Legacy
NCSoft showed that the MMORPGs was not a Western niche but a mass entertainment in Asia, and its clan warfare, cash-shop economies and mobile ports shaped the business model of online games across the region. Its players also helped build the gray markets for gold and items described in Virtual Economies, Gold Farming & the GDP of Norrath.
Its Western ventures were a mixed record: the bold experiments of Guild Wars sat beside the closures of Tabula Rasa and WildStar. But the company that began with one adapted comic has outlasted most of its rivals from the first age of Online Worlds: From MUD1 to World of Warcraft, and the Lineage name it launched in 1998 still anchors its business.
Marginalia
- Kim Taek-jin founded the company on March 11, 1997; he remained its chief executive nearly three decades later.
- Lineage launched on September 3, 1998, adapting Shin Il-sook's manhwa of the same name; it was designed by Jake Song.
- NCSoft reported that the Lineage franchise had attracted 43 million players by 2006.
- In April 2001 it bought Destination Games, the Austin studio of Richard Garriott and his brother Robert.
- It acquired Guild Wars maker ArenaNet in December 2002, before Guild Wars had even been announced.
- Throne and Liberty, released in Korea in December 2023, was published in the West by Amazon Games.
- The company renamed itself NC on April 2, 2026.
Quick answers
- What is NCSoft?
- The Seoul-born publisher whose Lineage filled Korea's PC bangs with castle sieges, then went west to buy ArenaNet and Richard Garriott's team and become one of the world's great MMO houses.
- When was NCSoft founded?
- NCSoft was founded in 1997 and is based in Pangyo, Seongnam, South Korea.
- Who founded NCSoft?
- Kim Taek-jin, who still leads the company.
- What is NCSoft known for?
- Lineage and Guild Wars.
- What happened to NCSoft?
- Active; restructured into several subsidiaries in 2024–25 and renamed NC on April 2, 2026.
