Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
NCSOFT pays 3 mil. won bonus on 'Lineage 2M' success
By Baek Byung-yeul
NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin
By Baek Byung-yeul
NCSOFT will offer 3 million won ($2,580) in incentives to every employee on the back of the successful launch of its new mobile role-playing game “Lineage 2M,” the company said Tuesday.
The game maker said its CEO Kim Taek-jin has decided to grant the bonus money as “Lineage 2M” is gaining explosive popularity among gamers, becoming the top-grossing mobile game soon after its release on Nov. 27.
“Kim Taek-jin, CEO and chief creative officer of NCSOFT has decided to offer 3 million won to all the employees of the company who have worked hard for the launch and management of Lineage 2M,” an NCSOFT official said.
“The special payment will be equally distributed to every member of the company regardless of their job position.”
The total amount of the bonus money will be about 12 billion won. NCSOFT currently have about 3,700 employees, according to data by the Financial Supervisory Service and including dispatched workers and interns, the figure goes up to around 4,000. The 3 million won incentive is the same amount as the company granted when launching “Lineage M” in 2017.
NCSOFT developed the mobile version of its popular PC role-playing game “Lineage 2” for about two and half years. The game's realistic 3D graphics and massive scale battle have been appealing to young gamers and the game soon topped the mobile game charts of both Google Play and Apple's App Store.
The company also launched the beta service of PURPLE, a PC-mobile interconnected game platform, on the same day it released "Lineage 2M," in a bid to let gamers enjoy the game on both smartphones and PCs.
Currently, NCSOFT's “Lineage 2M” and “Lineage M” ranked first and second in Google Play's top-grossing chart. Analysts estimate that NCSOFT is posting daily sales of more than 3 billion won.