NCSoft to begin restructuring in wake of slump in games business (Korea)

Game maker NCSoft is encouraging employees, mainly those in non-development and support departments, to resign. The scale of the restructuring has not been disclosed, but the company's labor union has been notified of the resignation.
The number of employees who received the incentives is said to be around a dozen, but the company believes that the number of people being encouraged to resign is in triple digits.
According to NCSoft's business report, the company's employee numbers will be as follows:
The total number of people working in game development and related research and development positions was the largest at 3,591, followed by business and management positions at 1,107 and IT and platform-related positions at 325.
The retirement recommendation this time is due to the deterioration of the company's performance. In 2023, the company's performance was poor, with sales down 30.8% and operating profit down 75.4% compared to the previous year.
Sales of its flagship content, the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) "Lineage" series, have declined, and ambitious MMORPG titles such as "Throne & Liberty" have also declined.
None of the new releases performed well in South Korea, causing the company's operating profit to fall to single digits last year for the first time in 24 years.
In order to overcome the poor performance, the company launched the "Change Management Committee" in October 2023.
, and is working to improve management efficiency. At the end of 2023, for the first time since its founding, the company appointed Park Byung-moo, former CEO of VIG Partners, a private equity fund management company, as co-CEO.