Jeonghee “JJ” Jin she spent a lot of time growing the Pearl Abyss business in America, leading Pearl Abyss America for almost eight years.
Now she is the CEO of NC America, and, during one of the biggest recessions ever in the game industry, she is in charge of NCSoft's expansion in the West.
In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Jin said that she plans to grow the company's game business. (NCSoft recently made four investments in Korean and European studios. She is also expanding at a new office in Irvine, California, and experimenting in non-MMO genres including the recently made ones. “Idle MMO” game release.. And she is using her knowledge in Eastern and Western markets to expand in a different way.
Origins
Jin started at Pearl Abyss in February 2018 as the first employee based in the U.S. The division, Pearl Abyss America, started in August 2018, and she was appointed CEO of Pearl Abyss America that same month. Over time, the department grew to around 85 people.
South Korean companies are among the largest in the world and have been involved in the global market for a long time. But they have faced challenges in terms of publication and development in the US and other regions in the West.
“I personally think it's very important to have a local business. It's also good to have a team that supports the local community because obviously the market is different,” Jin said.
“Today, it's not just a product. W just don't put it away and forget about it. We all run a live service game,” Jin said. “It's really important that we're able to support these live service titles in an ongoing way and do this day-to-day work for the services that our players need over time,” Jin said.
The company spends a lot of time doing meaningful events for the local community.
“I think it's actually much more important than ever to have a local team or a global team that understands the target audience in their areas and just does the right support and actions on the side of the community,” Jin said. “There are mistakes you can easily make if you're making decisions about different departments. It's very important to have a really good team that really supports live production and community and marketing.”
NCSoft will start
NCSoft started as an online game company in 1997 in South Korea, and has created some of the biggest MMORPG franchises in the game industry.
“This 27-year-old company launched the original Lineage in 1998. And now NCSoft is one of the world's leading global publishers,” said Jin. “For me, NCSoft is a fantastic company, one of the first in the world to develop MMO games.”
To date, NCSoft games have generated over 200 million registered users, including over 100 million who have played the Lineage series. NC America is 100% owned by NCSoft, and operates games like ArenaNet.
“And NC America is the only publishing arm of NCSoft in the West or outside of Asia, and we started it in April 2023,” Jin said. “We're trying to expand our pipeline to more, including titles from independent studios we've invested in, and possibly third-party titles. We are eager to grow as a global publisher under NCSoft. NCSoft is like a sleeping giant in the West. “
“I'm excited about the future for NCSoft and NC America, the studio,” said Jin.
Part of the job could be finding new games for NCSoft to publish or getting a new game studio as well.
“I'm really trying to increase our publishing capabilities, our self-publishing capabilities, internally. But I also work closely with the headquarters,” Jin said. “I am talking to the CFO group for the investment and acquisition opportunities. And we're looking closely at a lot of Western studios, of course.”
Expansion
NCSoft recently invested in a Korean Studio called Mistel Games, which is working on a shooting game. The company also acquired the global publishing rights for the title and we also invested in a studio called Virtual Akemi in Europe.
NC America also promotes existing MMORPG franchises like Blade & Soul, Aion and Lineage.
“They've been in the market for a very long time but the community is still strong,” Jin said.
In fact, last week the company announced Blade & Soul Neo as a remastered version of the original game that came out nine years ago. It's already out in South Korea and now it's coming to PC in North America and Europe.
“We changed a lot of the visuals and the fighting and the story and everything from the original version for our audience. So I'm really excited about that,” Jin said. “We're also working on some other titles based on these big IPs from the MMO franchise. I'm confident that we can bring these titles to the West for the those players who really enjoy original titles and have a nostalgia for a big game world.”
NC America includes both North America, South America and Europe. Across these divisions, NCSoft has approximately 35 people, most of whom are in Irvine, California. The team is now expanding.
“We want to be flexible and work on small and medium projects first. We were founded last year and now we are really at a growing stage. We are hiring a lot of positions, although I don't want to grow too fast,” she said. “We don't have hundreds of job opportunities. We are starting small and want to make sure we have step by step plans to grow the team and bring in more projects. Typically, we need more people in game production, market project management, PR and marketing or community strategy.”
Hiring people
Jin said that the company is looking for people who are gamers and are interested in the games. Jin said she ends up talking to people at the South Korean headquarters almost every day, whether it's talking to internal studio heads or other people.
“It's really important that I understand what kind of games they're trying to make and what the goals are so that I can be well aligned with someone who it needs to be worked on,” he said. “We have a global market these days, but it's not a single market. It's made up of several different sectors together.”
Teams should have a clear idea of the type of sport they are trying to create in their games and how there is a market for the game in the West.
Regarding the past 2.5 years of layoffs throughout the game industry, Jin said she felt bad for many of the publishers and developers, including NCSoft, who have gone through major changes in their organizations. .
“It was a really bad time for a lot of talented people in the industry. From nearly 20 years of experience in the video game industry myself, I have seen ups and downs all along. Everyone says it feels like we're at rock bottom. I'm pretty sure in the next couple of years or three or five years, of course, there will be a revolution. I'm not sure every company has that turnaround time. But I think there's a really good opportunity for big publishers like NCSoft or any other good developers to take advantage of that trend.”
At NCSoft, the company has been working on strategy development and making organizational changes for things like strengthening global exposure.
“We are preparing for a better time, and that's why I decided to join NCSoft,” said Jin.
Jin grew up playing MMOs in South Korea and has been rooted in the West for eight or so years.
“One of my dreams is to create a great workplace for gamers. I really want to build a great studio where game fans can work on their games and work in the communities,” she said.
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