The South Korean company NCSOFT has been gradually restructuring and “tightening its belt” over the past couple of years. Each new step became more and more radical. As a result, the decision was made to close internal teams and cancel several projects. You can read more about this in our topic.
The question regarding the scale of staff reductions has always been very approximate and without any confirmation. However, people continue to discuss it and closely analyze the meager responses of the company’s management. We tried to accumulate all official statements, rumors and leaks in one list:
- In the first half of 2024, about 100 people were laid off.
- By the end of December 2024, about 500 people will go into “voluntary retirement”. Each of them will receive from 20 to 30 monthly salaries, depending on their length of service and position.
- Two subsidiaries are already fully operational – NC QA and NC IDS. In total, about 360-400 people were transferred to them.
- From February 1, 2025, 4 more subsidiaries will begin to operate fully: FirstSpark Games, BigFire Games, Ludius Games, NC AI. About 800 people will be transferred to them.
- Employees of all six companies received a verbal promise “if your company closes in the next three years, you are guaranteed to be accepted back to NCSOFT.”
- At the beginning of 2024, the company employed 5,023 people.
- After all stages of restructuring, about 3,300 people will remain in the parent company.
- NCSOFT does not plan to carry out any further reductions or business divisions.
The veracity and accuracy of these figures are still in doubt. We hope that NCSOFT will provide accurate data as part of its annual report.
