NCSoft staff laid off in restructuring meant to decentralize its subsidiaries

South Korean studio NCSoft has eliminated staff as part of a wider restructuring effort, according to news agency Yonhap. The number of affected workers, and which teams this impacts, is currently unknown.

In a translated story, co-CEOs Taek-Jin Kim and Byung-Moo Park revealed the company has been “deteriorating” financially. 2024’s second quarter earnings show quarterly and yearly sales declines by 7 percent and 16 percent, and by 66 percent and 75 percent in operating profit for the same timeframes.

As such, the CEOs said NCSoft is “at risk of falling into a chronic deficit company. [This is] seriously damaging the creativity and challenging spirit that NC originally had.”

Kim and Park affirmed the “large-scale change” is “for the survival and future of the company. We promise active support and compensation to those affected.”

NCSoft’s next business steps

Going forward, NCSoft will make its subsidiaries into a quartet of independent studios: NCAI and the currently-named Studio X (Throne & Liberty), Studio Y, and Studio G.

Those teams will reportedly be provided with institutional support, but otherwise serve as their own developers “with genre expertise and technological competitiveness based on their own development culture and philosophy.”

Unannounced projects and support functions have also been canceled or reduced as a result of the restructuring. Still, the two CEOs said the “immediate pain” will help NCSoft in the long run.