{"id":53173,"date":"2025-10-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53173"},"modified":"2025-10-21T18:59:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:59:41","slug":"find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Back in August this year, Lineage developer NCSoft decided to pull the plug on one of its in-progress projects, the real-time strategy MMORPG<strong> Tactan: Knights of the Gods <\/strong>(source: <a href=\"https:\/\/news.mtn.co.kr\/news-detail\/2025080717521828071\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MTN<\/a>). Subsequently, the title\u2019s 100-member development team at studio Ludius Games was restructured, with a good chunk of employees leaving the company through voluntary buyouts. While this isn\u2019t a case of one-sided layoffs, the events leading up to Tactan\u2019s cancellation are a bit surprising.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NCing | Project G Official Trailer | eNCounter | \uc5d4\uc528\uc18c\ud504\ud2b8(NCSOFT)\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/onDAoypQo8k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamemeca.com\/view.php?gid=1767213\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameMeca<\/a>, Tactan (initially codenamed Project G) started as an in-house project within NCSoft, and it was accordingly announced as an NCSoft title in 2023. However, in October 2024, the game\u2019s development team was spun off into a separate, wholly owned subsidiary called Ludius Games. Reportedly, NCSoft then told Ludius Games that it would not be publishing Tactan, and that the studio would have to find its own, external publisher if it wanted to release the game. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tactan\u2019s developers began searching for a publisher but failed to secure a deal, which ultimately led to management cancelling the project. As of recent, the studio has been downsized significantly, with just 25 employees being retained, and about 80 being offered to either transfer to other posts or voluntarily resign. It seems most employees chose to leave with 20-30 months\u2019 worth of salary as severance. The remaining staff are expected to start work on a new project.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1264\" height=\"713\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1264px) 100vw, 1264px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-002.jpg 1264w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-002-768x433.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The decision of NCSoft, as a parent company and major game publisher, to not publish Tactan is unusual, especially given that development started out at their headquarters. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamemeca.com\/view.php?gid=1767285\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameMeca suggests<\/a> this might have been an indirect way of pressuring Ludius Games to drop the project: (via machine translation) \u201cOnce the parent company declines to publish a project, the likelihood of another publisher signing a contract for a game from an NCSoft subsidiary is virtually nonexistent. It\u2019s simply not rational for a business to invest in and service a title that even its own parent company has deemed unworthy of release. NCSoft must have been well aware that finding a new publisher under those circumstances would be extremely difficult.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To begin with, NCSoft\u2019s decision to spin off Ludius Games (alongside three other independent subsidiaries) came as part of a corporate split off amidst weakening financial performance (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.koreatimes.co.kr\/business\/tech-science\/20241021\/korean-game-companyncsoft-spins-off-4-subsidiaries-for-ai-game-development\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Korea Times<\/a>). Upcoming measures to streamline business operations (including restructuring and project terminations) had already been announced at the time, which means Tactan\u2019s cancellation had likely already been in consideration before Ludius Games was tasked with (and failed to) find an external publisher.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":53178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-53173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-21T16:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1504\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"844\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-10-21T16:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1504,"height":844,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-10-21T16:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/"},"wordCount":462,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Global)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/","name":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-21T16:00:00+00:00","description":"The developers of the real-time strategy MMO Tactan were told by NCSoft, their parent company, to look for another publisher.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251021-53173-header.jpg","width":1504,"height":844,"caption":"Tactan\/Project G trailer footage"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/find-your-own-publisher-ncsoft-spins-off-in-house-mmorpg-dev-team-into-subsidiary-tells-them-theyre-on-their-own-before-cancelling-project\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u30db\u30fc\u30e0","item":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"\u201cFind your own publisher.\u201d NCSoft spins off in-house MMORPG dev team into subsidiary, tells them they\u2019re on their own before cancelling project\u00a0"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","name":"AUTOMATON WEST","description":"AUTOMATON is a website that covers the Japanese gaming world. We bring you the news on video games from Osaka and Tokyo.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization","name":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activegamingmedia_logo.png","width":374,"height":190,"caption":"\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u30a2\u30af\u30c6\u30a3\u30d6\u30b2\u30fc\u30df\u30f3\u30b0\u30e1\u30c7\u30a3\u30a2"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/AUTOMATON_ENG","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCabvYnvuUUbbGUrxkaFRgSA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9","name":"Amber V","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/12252024-100x100.jpg","caption":"Amber V"},"description":"Editor-in-Chief since October 2023. She grew up playing Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein with her dad, and is now enamored with obscure Japanese video games and internet culture. Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53179,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53173\/revisions\/53179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}