NCSOFT’s Lineage 2M Lands in S. Korea

SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Lineage 2M, a new mobile massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by online game maker NCSOFT Corp., was launched in South Korea on Wednesday.

The new mobile version of mega-hit game Lineage II was released at 12:00 a.m. on Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS devices, becoming the top-grossing app in just nine hours.

Lineage M, which was launched in June 2017, logged 10.7 billion won (US$10 million) in revenues on its first day.

Lineage 2M, which integrates NCSOFT’s technology and expertise built over the past 20 years, features full 3D graphics and 4K UHD resolution.

“There will be no games in the next few years that will be able to technically follow Lineage 2M,” CEO Kim Taek-Jin told reporters on Sept. 5.

NCSOFT said Lineage 2M allows players to get a more realistic feeling when interacting with game objects such as monsters.

The mobile game is a follow-up to the online MMORPG Lineage II, which was launched in 2003. Other mobile entries in the series are NCSOFT’s Lineage M and Netmarble Corp.’s Lineage 2 Revolution.

The global launch of Lineage 2M has not yet been announced.

NCSOFT also began beta service of its in-house emulator, Purple. Mobile and Purple PC users will share the same server, making Lineage 2M a cross-platform game.

Purple features custom keybindings, a voice chat system, and live-streaming functions, as well as the ability to watch streams, company officials said.

NCSOFT said Lineage 2M is currently the only game supported by Purple but it expects future mobile games from the studio to be compatible.

Market watchers expect Lineage 2M to help improve NCSOFT’s revenue and possibly become its most popular game.

“We expect Lineage 2M to bring market-beating revenues,” said Lee Kyung-il, an analyst at Cape Investment and Securities Co., adding that the preregistered number for the game broke the 7 million-user mark in just 57 days.

Over 5 million people preregistered for Lineage M in its first 53 days.

Shares of NCSOFT were trading hands at 505,000 won, down 3.07 percent from a day earlier, as of 11:00 a.m. on the Seoul bourse.

(Yonhap)