NCSoft's Wildstar online game is going free-to-play.
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South Korean gaming giant NCSoft expands into key Western PC and mobile markets

NCSoft generated more than $756 million in revenue last year as one of South Korea’s big online game companies. But the company, known for publishing the online role-playing game Lineage, isn’t well known in the West, and it is finally ready to change that with some big strategic moves.

The South Korean company wants to become a player on the global stage, but it has had some ups and downs over the years as it tries to become bigger outside of Asia.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.