NCsoft Corporation held a board of directors meeting and passed a resolution to enter the European market through the creation of NCsoft Europe. As a result of this resolution from the board of directors meeting, NCsoft is planning to establish a subsidiary company called NCsoft Europe in London, UK.
NCsoft has already successfully established itself in North America, Japan, Taiwan, China and Thailand. With the upcoming venture into Europe, NCsoft takes one step closer to constructing a global network for online game services.
The capacity of the online game market in Europe is expected to reach about $3 billion US this year, and in 2005, it is expected to exceed $5 billion US.
Currently, American made online games are dominating the game industry in Europe. Since the exports of Korean game companies have been heavily concentrated in Asian market such as China, Korean made games have to date not made significant strides in Europe (The market share of Korean games exported to different regions are as follows: China 52.4%, Taiwan 16.6%, Southeast Asia 6.5%, Japan 6%, North America 5.7%, Europe 2%. Source: Ministry of Culture & Tourism 2004 Game Economic White Paper).
NCsoft is planning to service Lineage II, and City of Heroes in Europe by the end of 2004. After that, the company will continue to service new games with the objective of establishing itself as a leading online game company in the European region by 2005.