NC West will be formed by organizing the Korean company’s existing western subsidiaries into a unified corporate structure. The branches included in the restructure include NC Interactive, NC Europe, NC Austin and ArenaNet. The CEO of NC Interactive Chris Chung will become the CEO of the new organization. ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain will become the president of product management, while the company’s North American marketing VP David Reid will become the president of publishing. ArenaNet co-founder Patrick Wyatt will become the CTO. European executive positions have yet to be announced.
According to NCSoft, the goal of this restructure is to form a “dedicated focus” to become the premiere publisher of MMORPGs in western markets.
“There is an unparalleled opportunity for growth in the massively multiplayer online market,” said Chung of the restructuring. “By combining the strength of our US and European teams, NCsoft has the best global infrastructure to win in new and existing markets, and the best developer talent capable of creating blockbuster MMO franchises.”
NC West will be based the in Seattle, Washington area, the region that is currently called home by ArenaNet. NC Interactive and NC Austin have historically been based in Austin, Texas. In an interview conducted with Reid by Kotaku it was stated that twelve redundencies will be made in the move to Seattle, but that there will still be a significant NCsoft presence in Austin. Reports have also discussed the possibility of around 50 cuts at the publisher's studio in Brighton.
Products from NCsoft’s western subsidiaries include ArenaNet’s Guild Wars franchise and NC Austin’s Tabula Rasa. NCsoft has also handled the publishing of Cryptic’s City of Heroes and the internally developed Lineage franchise.
Pictured – Guild Wars: Eye of the North