The fate of each new on-line game depends upon accurate predictions of personal computer trends years after development begins, the top developer at South Korea’s NCsoft said Wednesday.

The success of NCsoft, which makes the globally popular Aion and Lineage game titles, is often cited as an exception in this nation’s software industry, which has little presence in the global market.

Bae Jae-hyun, chief of NCsoft’s development unit and executive vice president, said the company’s strength lies in knowing computer hardware trends inside-out. Being able to pinpoint the direction of new technology is essential in lining up a target during the initial stages of a game’s three-to-five year development, he said.

“We set a very aggressive target for Lineage 2,” Bae said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency at the company’s headquarters in Seoul. “So at a time of its release, Lineage 2 required high-performing computers. But our forecast was right. A graphic card that could support our game had been developed by then, so our game beat our rivals in quality.”

In the personal computer industry, where hardware is upgraded every year with the development of better and faster chips and processors, gamers place increasingly high expectations for enhanced and realistic visual imagery, he said.

If a developer’s forecast is set too aggressively, half a decade’s work could prove fruitless as computer performance will fall short of a game’s minimum requirements. But set the target too conservatively, and a project could go bust as the richness of its gameplay will pale in comparison to other products.

This has proven particularly crucial for the category to which Lineage and Aion belong, massive multiplayer on-line games (MMOG), where the number of users is a critical factor in determining the quality of the gaming experience.

NCsoft runs multiple servers for Aion, which becomes a virtual world for gamers. At any given moment, there are hundreds of thousands of users exploring, conquering, developing skills and building camaraderies with each other in a breathtaking three-dimensional fantasy land. Though NCsoft would not disclose the number of active users who pay monthly subscription fees, the company said 200,000 players stay connected on average just in South Korea.

Aion, released in December 2008, generated 252.1 billion won (US$220.9 million) in revenue last year and is expected to bring the company 330 billion won this year.

The product is one of the most lucrative computer software products made in South Korea, which sees itself as an underdog in the industry. South Korean software makers as a whole hold less than 2 percent of the global market, standing in sharp contrast to the sweeping success of the nation’s consumer electronics giants, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.

NCsoft was the first Korean computer software maker to sell more than 1 million copies in the North American market. Available in seven languages in more than 60 countries, Aion aimed to attract global gamers from the time of its conception, Bae said.

One of the founding members of the 13-year-old company, Bae said going global is inevitable for the survival of game software makers, and urged more Korean companies to tap overseas markets. NCsoft operates nine affiliates and joint ventures outside Korea.

“We should not just stay in Korea. There are now more countries that are trying to catch up with us than there are countries we are trying catch up to,” he said, noting the quick advancement of the Chinese game industry in particular.

As the dominant gateway to computing and the Web shifts from desktop computers to mobile devices, the next decade will bring another transformation in the gaming industry, he said. But one thing will remain the same.

“People have always wanted to play games on every device they have,” Bae said. “Each platform has different types of games, but they will eventually be connected on-line through the Internet.”

He emphasized that on-line games are not made from software code alone, but a synthesis of computer software and hardware technology, and more artistic aims of engaging the emotions and senses of users.

“I can’t help but love it,” said Bae, whose duties at work include playing NCsoft’s upcoming “Blade and Soul,” a martial arts multiplayer game, and who tracks new trends in technology in his free time. He said he knows the dates for new processor developments and releases from memory.

But though he is enthusiastic about the promises of new technology, Bae said game development has at least one thing in common with making films, operas, or any other work of art: conjuring empathy and emotion.

“Bad acting makes it hard for viewers to empathize with characters. In a game, technology and visual design have only one goal — to make gamers empathize with their characters,” he said.

Source:http://www.telecomskorea.com/business-9282.html