‘Throne and Liberty’ Developer Likely to Begin Mass Layoffs

Update (10/29/2024): Throne and Liberty developer, NCSoft, had a representative of the studio reach out to Waypoint. The company wants to clarify their organizational restructuring. The following is an official statement from NCSoft.

“In response to the evolving and uncertain business environment, NCSOFT announced strategic organizational changes aimed at strengthening our global operations while laying the groundwork for long-term sustainable growth. These changes involve the establishment of four wholly-owned entities through a corporate split-off:

1. Three independent game studios—tentatively named Studio X, Studio Y, and Studio Z—will each focus on the development of THRONE AND LIBERTY, LLL, and TACTAN, respectively.

2. Our AI and NLP research division will transition into a separate entity. Tentatively called NC AI, with a focus on advancing our proprietary AI technologies and exploring new business opportunities in the AI space.

As part of these organizational changes, further adjustments will follow. Including staff realignment, voluntary retirement programs, and the scaling down or closure of selected projects and functions to better concentrate resources on our strategic priorities.

Our latest PC-console MMORPG, THRONE AND LIBERTY, will continue its development as an independent studio in close partnership with Amazon Games. This transition will allow for a sharper focus on the title’s creative direction and streamlined decision-making. Which we expect will accelerate THRONE AND LIBERTY’s expansion as a global IP.”

ncsoft responds to the news of the company restructuring

“Our co-CEOs, Taekjin Kim and Byungmoo Park, highlighted their vision for this transformation in a recent letter to Amazon Games:

‘We expect the new development studio will foster a more creative and dynamic environment. Enabling us to further enhance the quality of THRONE AND LIBERTY. With our strong partnership with Amazon Games, we aim to transform this new entity into an innovative global game studio.’”

Original: Throne and Liberty kicked off its launch with phenomenal player engagement. Within its first week, it boasted three million players and a concurrent peak of 336,300 players. 24 million hours among players were clocked, and viewers spent a combined 11 million hours watching it on Twitch. Yet, despite all of that, the game’s developer/publisher in South Korea, NCSoft, is reported to start “restructuring.” Allegedly, this will include mass layoffs.

Per the Yonhap News Agency, the restructuring is due to “the repeated deterioration in performance and sluggish new releases.” Additionally, the restructuring will “target a significant number of employees belonging to game development and operation organizations.” Reportedly, NCSoft sunk a lot of money into the Lineage trilogy that hasn’t financially panned out.

BattleCrush and Hoyeon, two other NCSoft titles, also failed to meet sales expectations. Throne and Liberty, unfortunately — and despite its success — isn’t close to being enough to satisfy any of NCSoft’s financial burdens. “However, [Throne and Liberty] is expected to have only a limited impact on improving performance, as it has to share profits with [the title’s global publisher Amazon Games], and the revenue model itself is weak.”

‘throne and liberty’ Developer to start laying employees off

“It has been reported that along with the recommended resignation, a plan to accept voluntary retirement is also being discussed. The last time NCSoft implemented voluntary retirement was in 2012,” YNA reports. “NCSoft has been carrying out intensive management reform efforts since hiring co-CEO Park Byung-moo late last year. Last January, the subsidiary Entree Soft was shut down, and since April, after CEO Park officially took office, employees in non-development and support departments have been encouraged to resign.”

It’s getting to be exhausting. It’s hard to celebrate any game’s ability to break out early when there’s so much going on with any given publisher or developer in terms of their financial struggles. Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero! met a similar fate where, despite its near-immediate successes, publisher Bandai Namco still announced layoffs shortly after its release. Though some industry greats have offered potential solutions to these issues, it’s unclear if publishers will attempt any proactive measures to address these consistent problems.