Sony signs NCSOFT partnership amid growing Korean ambitions
It looks like Sony is on a signing spree in Korea: After entering a distribution agreement with Shift Up, the developer of Stellar Blade and Goddess of Victory: Nikke, the company signed NCSOFT up as a partner. NCSOFT is one of the biggest developers and publishers in Korea and recently showed off some of its upcoming games at G-Star 2023. It’s also behind the upcoming MMO Throne & Liberty, which Amazon Games will publish in the west.
“Under this partnership, NCSOFT and SIE will collaborate in various global business fields, including mobile,” a press release said. “The two companies are evaluating a range of potential opportunities with an aim to foster strategic synergy, leveraging NCSOFT’s technological prowess and SIE’s global leadership in the entertainment field.”
Sony and NCSOFT have become strategic partners.
Sony / NCSOFT
Taekjin Kim, the CEO and President of NCSOFT, said that this “partnership with SIE is the beginning of our efforts to build various synergies together, utilizing both companies’ core competencies, technological capabilities, and expertise.”
Sony’s Jim Ryan, who is on the way out from leading the company, emphasized that this partnership with NCSOFT “advances our strategy to expand beyond console and broaden PlayStation’s reach to a wider audience.”
Earlier this year, Korean media reported about Sony’s push into the country’s gaming industry and its search for local allies, naming NCSOFT and Shift Up as potential partners – and both of these predictions turned out to be correct.
They aren’t the only companies the article tagged as possible partners for Sony, though, so the international giant’s signing spree may not yet have ended. According to this report, Sony also approached Lies of P developer NEOWIZ, Black Desert Online maker Pearl Abyss, and mobile game publisher Com2uS Studios. We’ll have to wait and see if these advances have borne fruit as well.
