Jeonghee “JJ” Jin has spent a lot of time growing Pearl Abyss’ business in America, leading Pearl Abyss America for nearly eight years.
She is now the CEO of NC America, leading NCSoft’s expansion into the West during one of the gaming industry’s biggest downturns ever.
In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Jin said she plans to grow the company’s gaming business. (NCSoft recently made four investments in Korean and European studios. It’s also expanding in a new office in Irvine, California, and experimenting in non-MMO genres, including the recent release of an “idle MMO”. And it’s using its expertise in Eastern and Western markets to expand in other ways .
Origins
Jin started at Pearl Abyss in February 2018 as the first US-based employee The Pearl Abyss America division started in August 2018 and was named CEO of Pearl Abyss America in the same month. Over time, the group grew to about 85 people.
South Korean companies are among the largest in the world and have played a role in the global market for a long time. But they had problems publishing and developing in the US and other western regions.
“Personally, I believe that it is really very important to have a local business. It is also good to have a team that supports the local community because of course the market is different,” said Jin.
“These days it’s not just a product. Just don’t send it and forget it. We all run a live service game,” Jin said. “It’s extremely important for us to be able to support these live service titles around the clock and do this day-to-day work for all the services our players need over time,” Jin said.
The company spends a lot of time organizing meaningful events for the local community.
“I actually think it’s more important than ever to have a local team or indeed a global team that can really understand the target audience in their regions and also do the right support and actions on the community side,” Jin said. “There are mistakes that you can easily make if you decide on different regions. It’s very important to have a very good team that can really support live production, community and marketing.”
The beginnings of NCSoft
NCSoft started as an online gaming company in 1997 in South Korea and has created some of the biggest MMORPG franchises in the gaming industry.
“This 27-year-old company launched the original Lineage in 1998. And now NCSoft is one of the world’s leading global publishers,” Jin said. “For me, NCSoft is a very unique company, one of the first in the world to develop MMO games.”
To date, NCSoft games have generated more than 200 million registered users, including more than 100 million who have played the Lineage series. NC America is 100% owned by NCSoft and operates the games as ArenaNet.
“And NC America is the only publishing arm of NCSoft in the West or outside of Asia, and we launched in April 2023,” Jin said. “We’re looking to expand our pipeline to more, including titles from indie studios we’ve invested in, as well as possibly third-party titles. We are eager to grow as a global publisher under NCSoft. NCSoft is like a sleeping giant in the West.”
“I’m actually very excited about the future of NCSoft and NC America,” said Jin.
Part of the job could be finding new games for NCSoft to publish or acquiring new game studios.
“I’m really trying to increase our publishing capabilities, our self-publishing capabilities, in-house. But I also work very closely with headquarters,” Jin said. “I’m talking to the CFO group about investment and acquisition opportunities. And of course we’re watching a lot of Western studies closely.”
Extension
NCSoft recently invested in a Korean studio called Mistel Games, which is working on a shooter. The company also acquired global publishing rights to the title and we also invested in a studio called Virtual Akemi in Europe.
NC America will also promote existing MMORPG franchises such as Blade & Soul, Aion and Lineage.
“They’ve actually been on the market for quite a while, but the community is still going strong,” Jin said.
In fact, last week the company announced Blade & Soul Neo as a remastered version of the original game that came out nine years ago. Already out in South Korea, it’s now coming to PC in North America and Europe.
“We’ve reworked a lot of the visuals and combat and story and everything from the original version for our audience. So I’m excited about it,” Jin said. “We are also working on some other titles based on the original IP of the big MMO franchises. I’m sure we can bring these titles to the West for players who really enjoy the original titles and have some nostalgia for the expansive game worlds.”
NC America includes North America, South America and Europe. There are about 35 people at NCSoft in these regions, most of them in Irvine, California. The team is now expanding.
“We want to be agile and work on small to medium-sized projects first. We were trained last year and now we are really in the growth phase. We’re hiring for a lot of positions, although I don’t want to grow too fast,” she said. “We don’t have hundreds of vacancies. We’re starting small and want to make sure we have step-by-step plans to grow the team and bring on more projects. Mostly we need more people for game production, market project management, PR and marketing strategy or community.”
Hiring people
Jin said the company is looking for people who are gamers and have a passion for games. Jin said that almost every day she ends up talking to people at the headquarters in South Korea, whether it’s talking to the heads of internal studies or others.
“It’s really important for me to understand what plays they’re trying to make and what the goals are so I can be really well aligned with somebody who has to work on that,” he said. “Nowadays we have a global market, but it is not the only market. It is made up of many different regions together.’
Teams should have a clear idea of the type of entertainment they are trying to create in their games and what the market for the game is in the West.
Regarding the past 2.5 years of layoffs in the game industry, Jin said she feels bad for many publishers and developers, including NCSoft, who have undergone major changes in their organizations.
“It was a very bad time for many talented people in the industry. In almost 20 years of experience in the video game industry, I have seen the ups and downs all the time. Everyone says we feel like we’re at rock bottom. I’m pretty sure that in a few years or in three to five years there will be an uprising of course. I’m not sure every company has this turning point. But I think there is a very good opportunity for all the big publishers like NCSoft or other good developers to take advantage of this momentum.”
At NCSoft, the company worked to improve strategy and organizational changes for things like strengthening global publishing.
“We are preparing for better times, which is why I decided to join NCSoft,” said Jin.
Jin grew up on MMOs in South Korea and has been rooted in the West for about eight years.
“One of my dreams is also to create a really good workplace for players. I really want to build a good studio where game lovers can work on their games and work in communities,” she said.
