By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter

NCsoft is slowly but steadily expanding to the non-game Internet service sector, while its cash-cow game business is losing vigor.

Korea's largest game company this year has released a series of social-networking services from Openmaru, an in-house software studio, with strong support from its CEO Kim Taek-jin. Meanwhile, its stock price almost halved over the past two months, as investors raised doubt about the prospect of its online games business.

The firm has been making investment in the online services sector this year, which is dominated by big portal operators such as Naver, Daum and SK Communications.

``The Openmaru studio is the first step to create a more open Internet environment by providing easy-to-user technologies,'' he said during a special lecture to students of Seoul National University, where he earned his bachelor's degree and master's in electronic engineering and his Ph.D in computer science.

The four services launched by Openmaru are MyIDnet, Life Pod, Spring Note and Rolling List. The first two are personal data and schedule management programs, and the latter two are social-networking services, where users can share a single notebook for business or personal purporses.

Kim's remark came at a time when its online game business is showing signs of decline.

NCsoft is Korea's largest computer and video game producer in terms of revenue, with sales of 161 billion won in the latest quarter. The firm specializes in making and operating the so-called massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

The sales heavily depend on two PC games, ``Lineage'' and ``Lineage II.'' Both have earned the company more than 1.5 trillion won since 1997, but are gradually losing subscribers. In the second quarter alone, its revenue fell by 16 percent.

To create a new momentum, the firm has spent enormous amounts in hiring renowned game developers in the United States and gave them the freedom to create anything for the past six years. But the resulting product, an MMORPG named ``Tabula Rasa'' which was released earlier this month in the Untied States, is far from convincing anyone.

In one example, MSNBC's Scott Taves reviewed the game that it ``tries, but comes up short'' and ``it's just not compelling.'' It is ranked eighth among recently released PC games in the United States according to gamerankings.com, an online site that evaluates new games ― a fair performance for ordinary games but not for a six-year money-devouring project.

NCsoft said that it will take some time to check the U.S. sales, but added that there have been ``ups and downs'' in sales in local retail shops.

Stock price slid rapidly. It was traded at 84,600 won in the Seoul market on October 2. But when the bourse closed on Friday, it was 45,000 won. During the period, Mirae Asset Securities alone shed 1 million shares, reducing its share in the firm from 8 percent to 2.8 percent.

NCsoft's public relations office said that the firm is still devoted to the game sector.

"NCsoft's main business has been games, and will be games," said Kim Joo-young, chief of the PR team. "Our sales are 100 percent from game business."

Meanwhile, the media has interpreted Kim's remark as a healthy criticism on Korea's Web portal sites, especially Naver. Naver blocks other search engines such as Google from finding information from its database, and many in the IT industry have blamed such policies are hampering the industry's growth.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr