NCSoft Questions

Thanks for helping out with the industry overview everyone - it really helped me have a better understanding of the gaming environment and how it might affect NCsoft and the gaming experience that I've come to love. There is still so much I want to learn though. I want to ask all of you, my fellow gamers, for more insight. I want you to identify some key questions that you think are associated with NCsoft at the moment. From there, in future threads, I will try and gather more people to be involved in the process of critically analyzing the issues.

For me, a main question is how will they effectively diversify their gaming portfolio? It wasn't covered in the industry overview, but the game industry has become increasingly predicated on targeting women and adults over 30 years old. This is a relatively untapped market, and, coupled with the increased desire for casual games that can serve a wider range of people and fits all demographics, presents a significant obstacle for NCsoft. It is imperative that they find a strategy that allows them to tap into these markets, while ensuring they don't cannibalize their existing customer base to fill their new game memberships.

I think another question that has to be posed is whether or not NCsoft has an effective strategy in place to capitalize on globalization in the gaming industry. The export market share of online games is expected to reach 82 per cent, and with the company already established in areas such as the United States, Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, it needs to find opportunities in new regions to establish a presence and continue the "glocalization" mandate the company's leadership follows. If it doesn't, it will miss out on ample opportunities that their competitors will capitalize on and use to gain market share and potentially push NCsoft out of the market.

One other main issue that needs to be addressed, in my opinion, is the social responsibility aspect of gaming. I think a strong social presence is becoming increasingly important. Non-gamers are becoming more cognizant of issues such as game addiction, identify theft, and illegal cash trading of items, and NCsoft needs to implement a strategy to show that they are true to their CEO's desire to bring joy into the lives of players, not health issues and heartache. By showing that they care about eliminating the negative effects of gaming, they can also hopefully bring in new customers who place an emphasis on companies with a commitment to social responsibility.