According to an article by The Korea Times, Korean-based video game publisher NCsoft may have some trouble on its hands.
While it’s normal for a gaming developer to have some sort of a turnover rate after they release games, NCsoft’s turnover rate with employees is shockingly high and the company is having trouble keeping employees onboard.
So what’s the cause? Quite simply, many NCsoft employees don’t have faith NCsoft’s CEO Kim Taek-jin. Case in point? Back in 2001, NCsoft began preliminary development on its MMORPG Tabula Rasa. Kim decided to hire famed MMORPG developers (and brothers) Richard and Robert Garriott to handle Tabula Rasa’s development.
But when employees heard that Kim paid them 16 billion won ($17 million) in cash and another 1.5 million shares in stock options (worth 50 billion won – $54.6 million) to hop on-board, I wager the employees weren’t too happy about it. (Gee, I wonder why?)
While Tabula Rasa will finally be released this year, the game had a six year development cycle. The Garriott brothers failed to deliver the game numerous times, hence the game’s protracted development spree.
According to the article, the only person who had faith in the Garriott brothers was Kim himself, which didn’t net him many supporters in the long-run. When Kim was spending loads of NCsoft’s money and resources on the game, many employees left the company.
In mid-September, NCsoft signed a deal with Sony to become one of the company’s primary first-party developers. Is this an early measure in attempt to keep NCsoft afloat? Well, one thing for sure, angering your employees is never a good sign.
[Via Kotaku]
