Since the nascent period of online games in the late '90s and 2000s, publisher NCSoft and its massively multiplayer online role-playing games have been a mainstay. The company's one significant edge against competitors like Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft was its focus on bridging the divide between Western and Eastern MMORPG audiences with a cross-continental portfolio including Lineage II, Aion, and Guild Wars 2.As live service games have become increasingly high risk for the industry, the long-running publisher sees a path through the turmoil, with its sights on company expansion. In 2025, the publisher intends to double down on its live service business in the wake of layoffs and restructuring to reaffirm its position on the global marketall with a focus on its MMORPG pedigree.Current CEO of NC America Jeonghee Jin said she hopes the industryand the companyis on the upswing after laying off workers. According to her, NCSoft is recalibrating its approach to supporting Western game developers, with the hope of not repeating mistakes from years past.Building a new NCSoftWhile NCSoft has maintained steady success with legacy titles such as Lineage II and Guild Wars 2, the company has struggled across other ends of its portfolios. During the 2010s, NCSoft made efforts to expand in the United States, but that ultimately led to the shuttering of the sci-fi MMO Wildstar and its developer Carbine Studios, and the online music-rhythm game Fuser from developer Harmonix (now owned by Epic Games). In recent years, it's laid off workers and underwent a general restructuring in late 2024."The last two years have been pretty bad for many game companies, including NCSoft, but honestly, I've seen cycles like this in the game business, and most other businesses," said the CEO. "We are always seeing these ups and downs, and especially right after the COVID lockdown period. We're now seeing a lot of layoffs and cancelations of promising projects, but I'm still actually very hopeful because I feel like we're kind of at the bottom of that cycle, and that a rise is happening."In 2024, Jin was named CEO of NC America following her time as the former senior vice president and CEO of Pearl Abyss America, where she helped expand the reach the South Korean MMORPG Black Desert Online. Since she joined the company, NCSoft has made numerous investments within European and Korean development studios for new IPs, including a new first-person shooter from Moon Rover and an RPG known as Breakers from Vic Game Studios, respectively.Jin acknowledged the publisher's past misfires, saying she joined the company with the hope of learning from its mistakes. "When I joined, I had a lot of thoughts on where we can do things with NCSoft," they continued. "This publisher has such a rich history within the MMORPG space across the Korean and western markets, and that makes it such a unique company.""Going back to the '90s, NCSoft was one of the first MMORPG developers, and they've done a lot of experiments with trying to break through to other markets. Generally those titles have been doing great mostly in Asia, but to a lesser degree in western regions, which we want to work on more."There have been a lot of investments with NCSoft over the years, and a lot of experiments, and some of them went great, but others not so much. I think a lot of people only remember failures, but there are a lot of achievements as well which definitely paved the way for other Korean companies and Asian developers who wanted to go global. I feel very optimistic now as we invest more within the western market, which we see a growth opportunity for."Image via NCSoft.Image via NCSoft.Now in 2025, Jin is heading up the new NCSoft office in Southern California following a notable restructuring effort. According to Jin, her current vision for NCSoft is a publisher that releases modern games that are more approachable for wide audienceswhich includes the online shooter Project LLL.NCSoft will also lean into its steady successes within online live service games, which they still see growth potential in. Along with titles from Moon Rover and Vic Game Studios, a recent investment in Mistil Games and their upcoming third-person shooter Time Takers show how NCSoft is heading into new territory."It's good for us to have more diverse genres in the portfolio, and with NCSoft America and the Western divisions, we are now in a better position to bring these titles to a broader audience."Finding success within the live service modelThe video game industry within recent years has been a volatile and challenging space for developers to operate in. With record layoffs and studio closures, studios are also juggling ballooning development budgets and expectations for success."I think there are still a lot of successful titles right now, and they're still being loved by so many players, and not really having a really negative impact on their communities," she continued. "So I see a lot of bright and some dark sides of the business right now. But I know we're going to see that rise once again, and we'll do it all together as industry comrades. I'm also really looking forward to all the projects that we are working on, so I'm very positive and optimistic about the future."Jin explained that NCSoft still thinks its central publishing role supporting a wide variety of studios has advantages over being a studio supporting one game. Live service games need "happy" players, and tracking player behavior can be a task that's too big for one dev team."It can be very stressful...for any publisher and developer working on live service games, they hear a lot of harsh comments and feedback all the time," she said. "But that's why a core publisher exists for [live service games]. A really good team has to support that and figure out how to engage the community and guide the game over time."For online games, the communities they foster can be a driving factor in future success. Along with maintaining a successful launch for Throne and Liberty, NC America also has the western launch of Blade & Soul Neoa visual and gameplay remaster of its popular martial-arts action MMOaims for a "nostalgic" trip back to a classic MMO experience for long-time fans, and the type of game that NCSoft plans to spotlight in the years ahead."I'm feeling great about the current projects we are working on, like one potential project we are preparing just made me feel very optimistic about the future of NCSoft's business in the West, and I feel I have a clear vision about how I want to run the business at this point," said Jin. "In the first few months while I was here, I did a lot of studying and reflecting on the history of NCSoftwhat did well and what didn't, and I talked to as many people as possible at the headquarters to figure out their perspectives about the Western regions and the growth opportunities there.""I'm in a very good place where I can plan confidently for our next projectsI feel good for what's ahead."