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| NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin speaks during a press conference at the Raum convention center in southern Seoul, Thursday. Courtesy of NCSOFT |
By Baek Byung-yeul
NCSOFT vowed to put all efforts into mobile games as the country's leading game company unveiled five new mobile role-playing games Thursday.
NCSOFT offered a glimpse of its new mobile multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) _ "Lineage 2M," a mobile version of the PC game "Lineage 2"; "Aion 2," a sequel to the firm's MMORPG "Aion"; "Blade & Soul 2"; "Blade & Soul M" and "Blade & Soul S."
"We are introducing these mobile games to give a glimpse of our future vision of mobile MMORPG," NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin said during a press conference at the Raum convention center in southern Seoul. "We tried to develop these mobile games to make a more polished version of our existing PC games."
Highlight of the conference was "Lineage 2M," scheduled to be released in the first half of next year.
"The mobile version of Lineage 2 will become more polished as we tried to reproduce the PC game in mobile devices. Also, we tried to add something more special to the mobile version," Kim said.
NCSOFT said "Lineage 2M" will come with full 3D graphics and have a 102.5-square-kilometer map, which is the largest ever among mobile MMORPGs developed by Korean companies.
The firm said "Lineage 2M" will enable users to be engaged in large-scale battles between clans in the game. Also, it is trying to make a seamless open world so users don't have any loading time while playing the game.
Another highlight was "Aion 2," a sequel to the firm's PC MMORPG "Aion." Since its 2008 release, "Aion" has become another popular franchise of the firm along with the Lineage series.
NCSOFT said the sequel is set 900 years before "Aion." Though it didn't provide much information about the game, NCSOFT said players can fly more freely across the in-game fantasy world.
The game company also unveiled three mobile versions of the "Blade & Soul" franchise. Known as an MMORPG based on Asian martial arts, the PC version has been a hit since its 2012 release.
"It has been six years since we released the PC version. When we first introduced the game, we wanted to allow users to play an MMORPG with action combat set in an Asia-inspired fantasy world," Kim said. "We will show how we reproduced the PC version in the mobile versions."
Though it will come as a mobile version, NCSOFT said "Blade & Soul 2" is an official sequel to "Blade & Soul." In the game, players can explore a wider world and can enjoy more stylish combat.
"Blade & Soul M" is a mobile game based on the original "Blade & Soul." The company explained "Blade & Soul S" will be a completely different style of mobile MMORPG based on "Blade & Soul."
NCSOFT also hinted it is preparing a collaboration with Samsung Electronics' foldable smartphone. "Samsung is an important partner for us. We have been in talks about collaboration," said Lee Sang-gu, managing director of the firm. "You will see what will happen in due time."
