Soft Touch
Ellie Gibson 08:00 (BST) 28/08/2007
NCsoft Europe boss Geoff Heath on the Sony deal and more.
Last month, Sony used its E3 conference to announce details of a new deal with MMO developer and publisher NCsoft. So far the company's titles, which include Guild Wars, Lineage II and City of Heroes, have only been published for PC - but now NCsoft games are set to appear on PSP and PlayStation 3.
Following the E3 announcement, GamesIndustry.biz met up with NCsoft Europe boss Geoff Heath to find out more about the deal.
GamesIndustry.biz: How long has the deal with Sony been in the works?
Geoff Heath: It's been quite a long time. I think the reason is because we wanted to make sure both of us did the right deal. NCsoft has been going now for ten years, always in the PC business, and we knew we needed to be in the console business - but it's always been with the right partner and doing the right deal.
What is it that makes Sony the right partner?
They tick all the boxes. Their technology works for us, and all the ways their doing their store and their billing and so on means we can do exactly what we need to do, and it fits very well.
Are you concerned that the current installed base of PlayStation 3 is lower than Xbox 360?
We're already in the PC business so it's not like we're starting from scratch. We've got a lot of faith in PS3; it will, over a period of time, be very successful.
What about the price point? Should Sony cut the price in Europe?
A lot of people forget that when the PS2 came out eight years ago, even if you built inflation into it... If you spend USD 500 on a PS3 you're getting USD 500 worth of Blu-ray kit, so the rest of it's free.
But that's if you're in the US, where they've had a price cut and it's USD 500. In the UK, it's USD 850; that's quite a big difference...
I let Sony worry about it [laughs].
What can you tell us so far about the games you'll be bringing to PS3?
Our biggest problem, which is a nice one, is that we've got loads of games - I think we've got something like nine MMOs in development and about 20 free MMOs, the ones you don't pay subscriptions for - so we've got tons of products in development. We can't realistically do all of them for PS3, plus the fact that we've got existing IP.
So, really our nice problem is to distill down to probably three or four titles, initially, that would do for PS3. We're working with Sony on which ones they are.
So the first batch will be comprised of three or four games?
Initially, yes. There's no limit, no minimum and no maximum; it's just the titles that between ourselves and Sony would be right for PS3. And some of our products would be great for PSP.
How will your approach to console gaming differ to your approach to PC gaming?
It's too early to say, but clearly there's no point just reiterating what we've done on PC on PS3. We've got to do something that's going to be special to that platform.
I think there is a difference between PC and console players but there's overlap as well. Our view long term is that people who have traditionally only played on PC will actually now start transitioning to PS3. Once they figure out what PS3 does, I think that take-up will get greater and greater.
You have a range of payment models for your PC games - free MMOs, subscriptions and so on. Which will suit PS3 best?
All of them. Looking at the way they've positioned the PS3 it's going to appeal to casual gamers all the way through to hardcore gamers, and NCsoft's plan over time is to cover all these people.
After you'd taken the decision to enter the console game market, why then decide to go platform exclusive?
Where Sony were taking the PS3 and where our business was going was an absolutely good fit, so that's what we decided to do. We continue to talk to all the other console people - we're not cutting of anything with anybody. But in terms of what Sony's vision is and our vision is for online gaming on console, it's a good fit.
So are you saying the games you're going to make will just be for PlayStation, but you might make other games for someone like Microsoft?
No. If you think of our core business being PC, we need to be in the console business. It's not something we're going to charge into. First of all we've got a very sound business on PC, so the idea of going into console gaming is to grow our business, not to replace it. We took a lot of care and time to figure out that doing a deal with Sony was the right thing to do, and that's why we're there.
Is there a chance that you might bring out your first MMO on PS3, and that same game could appear on Xbox 360?
No. If we put it on PS3, it will only appear on PS3.
So the PlayStation games will be exclusive to PlayStation, but you might develop different games for different platforms?
No. We've got a load of stuff in development, primarily for PC. We will, with Sony, select the ones that we think are applicable to do on PS3. Those are the ones we will do for PS3, and they will be exclusive to PS3. But they will also very likely be on PC, but not any other console.
Might you develop other games for Wii or Xbox 360?
We have no plans.
Let's talk about your PC business. How has Guild Wars been performing, for example? Has it done as well as you expected?
It's done better than we expected. We've got over the three and a half million mark, the four million mark is imminent, so we're doing incredibly well. This was a franchise that didn't exist two years ago. People talk about Guild Wars now as if it's been around 20 years; it's an amazing success.
But World of Warcraft has double that number of players, and unlike with Guild Wars, they're paying to play... How can you not look at that business and say, 'Hang on, we're letting people play are game for free; they're charging USD 20 a month and they've got twice as many subscribers...'
With Guild Wars, if you look at the history, we've got Lineage I and II, which outsold everything by miles. So we try to cover the whole cross section of different players. Guild Wars was an area we'd never been in before, which was people could buy a box and then play forever, and it's worked.
We love World of Warcraft because it's grown the market incredibly; it's found a whole load of new customers. Eventually they will, and they do, have a certain amount of churn, where people stop playing it. Where do they go? Us.
You've also got City of Heroes and Villains, which unlike many MMOs doesn't have that fantasy theme. Has it proved as popular as Guild Wars?
They've all worked fine. I can only talk European subscriber numbers, but our subscriber numbers for Lineage II and City of Villains are still going up. We're not losing players. And every time we put out a new Guild Wars it sells more than the last one.
So are you going to follow the same model with PlayStation - i.e., are we going to see MMOs on PS3 that aren't necessarily in the fantasy genre but might be sci-fi or comic book style?
We're going to have all sorts of stuff. I'm sure some of them will fail, but we can't keep recycling the goblins and the swords.
I think that will grow the market. There's 2 million people playing Guild Wars, but there are 198 million people in Europe with PCs and broadband who aren't playing Guild Wars. So I say, let's go get them.
Geoff Heath is CEO of NCsoft Europe. Interview by Ellie Gibson.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28059
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