http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-02-02-jobs-lost-as-nexon-america-restructures
A spokesperson from the South Korean publisher told us there has been some restructuring of its US arm in order to “streamline operations and reset the organisation to pursue a deeper focus on our most promising titles.”
Laymens translation of the corporate PR BS: management screwed up on their decision making, failed to listen to internal communications from their business units, and didn’t listen to and understand the concerns of their customers (the players). So we’re canning a bunch of our rank and file employees to make up for our (managements) mistakes.
What’s not noted in this article (in terms of related news) is that their Europe office (located in Berlin, Germany), has effectively closed their doors. Perusing Nexon’s Glassdoor reviews by employees, paints a picture of ineffective management (which is nothing surprising since this is a common problem at many companies). Plus I know someone who worked at the El Segundo, California location for several years who had far worse to say (which is why I have never been partial to their published games).
When companies alienate their customers (poor community interaction, poor customer support, poor payment policies/player facing business operations), eventually what goodwill that exists will be burnt and those customers will walk. That eventually affects the subsidiaries bottomline; the ones who unfortunately end up taking the rap for poor leadership are the lower level employees when the ones who should be getting the pink slip are the higher up folks that made the lousy decisions in the first place.
All of these gaming studios and publishers are vying for peoples limited time (where they have a growing choice of entertainment options). With the Korean MMO pipeline having dried up for a few years now (in terms of new developments in South Korea due to venture capital shift to mobile development and publishing), the cash grab in the west is also nearing the tail end and these firms are going to feel that pinch due to mismanagement of those titles.
Some of the MMO’s being targeted for a western release are titles that have been in development for years and aren’t based on newer technology (for example, Ascent: Infinite Realm and Lost Ark which are both far gone into Unreal Engine 3 and Bless Online which has had to undergo a system rebuild after several failed starts). NCSoft actually made the difficult but correct decision to just start over with what was once branded as Lineage Eternal (building the foundation with Unreal Engine 4).
The MOBA train hasn’t materialized out of these Korean studios (NCSoft shutdown Master x Master last month after making the announcement in November) either (competing against League of Legends, Dota 2, and to a far lesser extent, Heroes of the Storm). These studios modus operandi of short term gain and lack of longevity in the designs of their MMO’s is also coming back to bite them in the rear. There are going to be fewer suckers to take advantage of when these titles are opened up, and then closed down in a relatively short period of time. Trion Worlds would be a perfect candidate for finding another Korean title which they can cash grab and then drive into the ground.
The only Nexon (America) published game I have on my system is Riders of Icarus. And as noted before, Vindictus is something I’m only going to play via a local private server setup. If these companies want my money, they are going to have to do a much better job where it doesn’t come across as a blatant cash grab.
