NCSOFT sets up joint venture with Vietnamese game company

NCSOFT Corp., a major South Korean game developer, said Wednesday it has established a joint venture with a Vietnamese IT company as part of efforts to break into the Southeast Asian game market. NCSOFT and Vietnam's VNG have signed an agreement that created the joint venture, named NCV Games, which will take charge of distributing NCSOFT's games and operating the services in Southeast Asia, according to company officials. VNG, operator of the dominant mobile messenger in Vietnam, has a gaming unit, VNGGames, which publishes around 130 titles in the region. "NCV Games will lay the foundation for NCSOFT to deliver new and innovative experiences for the Southeast Asian market," NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin said. The joint venture plans to launch NCSOFT's Lineage 2M, a massively multiplayer online role playing game title, in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines in the second half and develop other services for the region in the long term, officials said. Source: Yonhap News Age ncy