Today, the launch date of Lineage2M in Russia and the world has become known. The MMO blockbuster, which earned more than $800 million in Asia, will be available to a Western audience on December 2. In connection with the upcoming release, we took a short interview with Seoul-based NCSOFT.
Lineage2MApp2Top.ru : The Korean release of Lineage2M took place two years ago.
You are entering the world only now. Why did it take so long? Have you evaluated whether it is worth launching the game on the world at all?
NCSOFT: Not at all. We originally planned a global release. And we started preparing for it immediately after the appearance of Lineage2M in South Korea in November 2019.
However, the process of adapting the game for a global audience has really dragged on. But we tried our best to speed up the process, including aimed at reducing the gaps between the content localized for different countries and, of course, Russia.
Since we are talking about the release in Russia, I note that you pay a lot of attention to our local market (the current interview is one of the confirmations of this). What is the reason for this?
NCSOFT: It’s true. You can say even more: Russia is one of the main markets for which we initially considered the possibility of localization of the game.
This was partly due to the fact that Russian users began to show great interest in Lineage2M since its launch.
This is not surprising, given that Lineage2M is positioned as a direct successor to Lineage 2, which was very popular in Russia.
NCSOFT: And we are very grateful to Russian users for the passion and interest they have shown in the game.
Now the Russian market is very important for Lineage as a franchise, not only regionally, but also globally. Therefore, we have been preparing for the official launch in Russia for a long time.
At the same time, you enter the Russian market not directly, but through an intermediary. It is performed by Innova. Tell us why you took this path?
NCSOFT: There are two main reasons.
Firstly, we wanted to get expertise on working in the Russian market from a company with extensive local experience. This is necessary to improve processes, including those related to localization.
Secondly, Lineage2M is a project that supports a cross-platform game. It can be played both from mobile devices and from the desktop (through our PURPLE solution). More platforms means more technical risks. We are interested in reducing them to a minimum. For us, after all, the safety of the players is in the first place.
Who will be directly responsible for operating the game?
NCSOFT: We are together with Innova.
At the end of the conversation, I want to touch a little on the topic of balance and monetization. Have you adapted them in Lineage2M for the Western market?
NCSOFT: Yes, of course. For example, in the world version, the levels of the characters grow faster (we added more content to accelerate growth).
As for monetization, it will focus on the level of the character. In the Korean version, it is built differently.
And the last question. There is an opinion that Russian players are closer to Asian players in their behavior (we are often compared with Chinese players) than Western players. What do you think about it?
NCSOFT: Russian gamers are really more like Asian gamers. This is also evidenced by the success of many Asian titles in Russia.
Russian players are open to communication in the game, are able to create groups and communities and maintain friendly relations with other players. In addition, they are very devoted to the game and constantly show their affection. They are loyal to competitive communities/groups and are not very demanding of new players joining their community.
An interesting statement. Thanks for the interview.