Time for ArenaNet to leave NCsoft?

As you all know, NCsoft is the publisher for Anet. When Guild Wars first started I'm guessing they saw NCsoft as a great publisher to start with, which was a great idea seeing as they had no fan base at the time (except the employee's :P). Over the past 5 years ArenaNet has grown to be NCsofts biggest product, even bigger then the games that they have developed themselves (Lineage, Dungeon Runners, and Aion). Now that ArenaNet has a large fan base (1,500,000+) I, and maybe some of you feel that it is time for ArenaNet to move on to a bigger/better publisher... or publish it themselves (like Blizzard). As great as Guild Wars is, being published by a Korean biased company limits to what they can create, and also creates problems for players; ironically most of which who live in Asia. As well as publishing the game NCsoft also provides the game support... and because they manage over 10 games the support is very limited and often, terrible. Many publishers provide phone support as well as in-game moderators in case of emergency's and such (ie: Duping). I state that NCsofts support is bad mainly because whenever I attempt to talk to support I'm given false information and/or computer responses. The funniest one was when reporting a glitch in the Hall of Heroes (PvP) and I was told that the Guild Lord doesn't move, and therefore he can't be put onto an altar.

So, advantages of a new publisher: More money for Anet (possibly), better support in the game/with your account, fewer restrictions to players outside the U.S./Europe, Possibly American/European based as opposed to Asian (keeping your money where you are, helping America out with it's current recession o,0).

Disadvantages: Finding a new one/hiring to publish themselves. Ummmmm... I can't think of anymore.

The reason for this thread is mainly that NCsoft just isn't the right company to represent ArenaNet in my honest opinion. If they moved to a very large company, such as Microsoft, we could maybe see Guild Wars on a console some day... (this is just an exaggeration, however it would be possible and quite successful as many console gamers play console games to avoid the $15 /month standard that MMO's have).

Ok, discuss! Anet stay with NCsoft, or leave and find a new one/publish it themselves.
MOD/ADMIN PLEASE MAKE POLL: Should ArenaNet find a new publisher?
option 1: Yes
option 2: No.
option 3: Publish Guild Wars themselves.

(Disclaimer: I am not an MBA)

I think that would be a phenomenally bad idea. With GW interest on the decline (which is only to be expected as the game ages), only token attention being paid to the game internally (the tiny "live team"), and a new flagship product that is still, honestly, little more than vaporware, ArenaNet would crater spectacularly.

GW:EN was supposed to hold us off until GW2, and serve to link the two. It failed at that given the extremely small amount of content in it and the time frame (it's been 2 years since GW:EN was released and still no sign of GW2), so another publisher would have a hard time justifying to its beancounters about taking them on, and I don't think they have the clout to be able to publish it themselves. They certainly don't have the product.

Their best bet is to stay where they are, and let Lineage, Aion, &c. subsidize GW2 development.

About the only advantage of them leaving NCSoft would be, as you said, getting away from NCSoft's horrible, awful, mind-meltingly stupid support.

According to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arenanet NCsoft owns Arenanet.

See also: http://www.arena.net/aboutus/

"ArenaNet is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation."

That decides it.

/end of thread?

Yes, Guild Wars interest is declining however I think that a new publisher will also be able to help with this. Currently, anyone who watches TV will notice an average of 1-2 video game commercials every single commercial that a Show has. I don't think ArenaNet is responsible because the publisher is generally the one to get the word out. Being a Korean based company... odds are that if they advertise they will do it in Korea. I'm not sure, but I think this may have happened at one point in time due to Guild Wars' large Korean base of players during 05-06. They have to realize however that the majority of the players will be from NA/Europe and that they need to advertise... there! If Guild Wars ran a commercial, TODAY I guarantee they would get at least 1,000,000 more customers. I learned about Guild Wars by walking into a game stop one day and looking at their computer games to find an MMO. After looking at all of them I saw one bombarded with stickers that said "FREE ONLINE PLAY". THIS is what needs to be advertised. If a new publisher took hold of the advertising, put out a 10 second commercial with some of the graphics/gameplay GW offers and EMPHASIZING on the FREE monthly play, then that would be great. But once again, being limited by NCsoft has shut this hope into a closet.

Don't forget that Jeff Strain and Mike O'Brien are now in charge of NCWest.

The only good I can see from leaving NCSoft is; no more horrible support and no more games to delay GW2 (*Aion*).

Back then, yes. I remember one Christmas (06 or 07, I can't remember)... Gamestop did a commercial with Ogden, Vekk, and Pyre voiced-over as kids talking about thier Xmas presents. No mention at all that it was Guild Wars. I hadn't gotten EotN yet (I waited for the price drop) and I thought it was for the new WoW expansion (since the forums had been buzzing about a new cutesy race, which I thought Vekk was). That might (or might not) have had some effect if they'd mentioned the bloody game.

Nowadays, though... TV spots are obscenely expensive, and I doubt anyone is going to pay that to advertise a 4-year-old, mostly-abandoned game.

Yeah, but GW2 could use some commercials maybe...

GW2 could use ANYTHING at this point...

Anet made a pact with the devil. They left Blizzard because they wanted to create a free to play experiment only to find themselves under NCsoft wings, which traditionaly is a pay to play MMO publisher. Oh the irony...

While ANet might not get the full attention of NCSoft as far as promotion or resources like other titles such as AION, there are advantages in the arrangement.

A bigger publisher such as EA or Microsoft would probably exert more creative control and restrictions. At least as far as i can tell, ANet have creative freedom.

Besides ANet are owned by NCSoft and I dont think they are sucessful enough to break away ala Bungie.

It was Christmas 2007. I work at Gamestop, and we had that commercial play constantly on the TV we had to have on in our store. One of my coworkers would sing along to it every. single. time.

I only just realized that it was GW a few months ago.

Anyway, there has been some minor GW advertising lately. I know there's currently posters advertising it in Gamestops (my coworkers had been debating whether or not I'd want ours when putting it up).

Ahh, so YOU were the one I heard about on the news who killed a coworker with a Guitar Hero II controller.

Completely justifiable.

From the VERY moment I saw the word Microsoft I wanted to make a post instantly..but I read it all...

No matter HOW I love Microsoft, I will NOT play it any more if they move to Micro$oft, do you know how greedy those guys are? Example: They are FORCING Valve to charge for their DLC even though they do not want to. In fact actually , M$ charges for EVERYTHING, there's no telling what they'd make ANet do. I guarantee you I'm not the only one who will strongly discourage again M$. Moving to M$ is the worst idea that could ever pop into ANet's head. I love and trust ANet, I'd feel betrayed if they move to M$. My Most hated Company.

As for any other publisher, or themselves. Sure, but not yet, don't you think they have enough on their hands ATM.

I honestly gotta laugh at the idea of M$ still, it is nothing against you, you're a cool person in my book, and M$ was probably just a random idea, whether it was or not, it's not an idea anyone should even ponder.

Exactly what i was thinking

Unless they are selling or shutting them down they are going nowhere

Businesses don't work like that.

Microsoft wouldn't be a bad idea at all actually, they have amazing support, their EXTREMELY successful and therefore don't mind about losing a few money over making you happy. I called them yesterday because my headphones broke, they didn't even ask me to send them back, they sent me a brand new pair. For an online game, instant support is needed because if you wait to long... something bad or worse could happen. As far as Microsoft charging for Xbox items such as DLC's... that's because they MADE the Xbox.

Microsoft would have no reason to buy a MMO, because MMO + Consoles haven't worked out yet, and won't ever work due to an actual keyboard and the restrictions of XBL.

Even then, there are many, many other compaines better than ArenaNet for that purpose.

That's not true. I just happened to be researching this for another thread, and found that Guild Wars represented only 14% of NCSoft profits during the best of times.

Guild Wars currently only accounts for 3% of NCSoft profits. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209476.html

A year ago Guild Wars was 12% (CoH/CoV was 7%) http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190983.html

Historically, it's been around 14%. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6170305.html

Blizzard/Activision is more of a name change than anything.... Blizzard is still owned by Vivendi Universal. I see the "Blizzard/Activison" label as a marketing ploy, nothing more. VU could fire everyone at Blizzard, if they were that stupid.



On another note, NCSoft just promoted Jeff Strain to head up NCWest, with Patrick Wyatt as CTO.

That leaves Mike O'Brien in charge of Guild Wars 2, although he will obviously continue to get support from Jeff and Patrick.

ArenaNet is now really a part of NCSoft.

Never going to happen

Arenanet is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCSoft, there is no possibility of them splitting, all they could do is try and get the cash together to buy out the corporation shares of arenanet, in other words effect an MBO of arenanet and any proprietary developments (gw for instance).

then they would have to find another financial backer to bankroll the development, marketing and distribution of GW2, which after an MBO would be extremely difficult indeed.

It simply boils down to a number of facts, if NCSoft tell the arenanet team they will not release anything relating to GW2 until 1 year after Aion is released then that is what they will do, if NCSoft decide to abandon GW2, then the arenanet employees can do one of 2 things, either MBO or abandon GW2.

Being a wholly owned subsidiary means you have no options or power of veto, if the controlling body make a policy decision then they have no option other than to follow it or try and buy their way out of it.

I still think GW2 will be released and is being developed but I am fairly certain that NCSoft policy will be release Aion, allow 1 year to settle an established playerbase, then release a new MMO with the expectation that it will be GW2, so timelinewise you are probably looking at August to October 2010 for Beta, xmas for release, GW2 should release to beta fairly polished and ready to roll which is why I predict a short beta

I remember that commercial, I never SAW it but my cousins came over one day and saw me playing with the exact same heros used in the commerical and immedantly said, OH you play that game! Not knowing what the name of the game was, you have a point there.

Also at your abandoned game comment... The actual point of this thread is for them to advertise... because the game Is the way it is? Understand? Mostly abandoned is why they need to advertise in the first place.

And PS: It's not mostly abandoned, either you play in international districts or you don't play at all anymore.

No. I meant abandoned by the Devs, not by the players. A 7-man "live team" is a skeleton crew.

seconded. tech support on the other hand so far has been great in my experiences.

From what I understand NCSoft really kind of lets ArenaNet do their own thing. I cannot imagine any supposed benefits would come close to overcoming the detriments of leaving NCSoft.

The buisness world is not the backyard. You can't just get up and leave a team because you don't like something on that team. Anet can't leave ncsoft because anet is owned by ncsoft. Unless they had enough money to buy that part of the company away from ncsoft they go no where. The way it should be.

The problem I have with NCsoft is the fact they are a hybrid between a game developer and publisher. It is like they are competing with Arenanet on the same front. You don't see Vivendi pumping out games to compete with WoW do you ? Ofcourse not. If Guild Wars 2 becomes a tremendous success I can guarantee you that it will take subscriptions away from Aion.Then NCsoft will be scratching their heads wondering where all their subs went. Arenanet can do much better than NCsoft.

If ANet doesn't have the resources to keep GW1 in decent shape even with NCSoft's backing, then they sure as hell don't have the resources to finish GW2 development without that financial muscle.

I'm willing to bet that the revenue stream problem makes succession from NCSoft a non-starter until GW2's release...and even then the legal battle would be ugly.

NCSoft has given ArenaNet all the time and money they wanted to make GW1 and GW2 and release it on their own schedule. Unlike other publishers, they haven't forced them to release a half-assed MMO which instantly fails (e.g. Warhammer, Age of Conan). The Anet employee count keeps going up every quarter (according to NCSoft investor materials anyway). Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

I'm thinking...... If they did not leave Blizzard we would have an awesome, wonderful, fantastic DiabloIII!

Firstly, ANet are OWNED by NCSoft, not published by them.

Secondly, ANet's fanbase is not 1,500,000 people.

Thirdly, ANet are NOT the biggest selling, Aion has what, 5.5-6 million subscribers?

Fourthly, closed.