NCSOFT invests in US game startup emptyvessel

NCSOFT Corp. has made an equity investment in emptyvessel, a US indie games studio, as part of efforts to expand into the first-person shooter genre, a mainstream category in the western gaming market, beyond massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

The strategic investment is aimed at diversifying its Asia-focused business, which relies heavily on its blockbuster Lineage MMORPG franchise. The company did not disclose the size of the stake, or the investment amount.

“With this investment, we will form a long-term partnership and discuss various collaborations, including (securing) the publishing rights for DEFECT, a new shooting game,” NCSOFT said in a press release on Friday.

Texas-based emptyvessel is developing the cyberpunk, squad-based and tactical shooter game DEFECT on Unreal Engine 5, a software used by developers to build games. It was first unveiled in a trailer last August.

The game studio was established in 2023 by veteran developers from global game publishers such as Activision, id Software, Disney, Microsoft and Naughty Dog.

They have worked on several global hits, including first-person shooters and action-adventure games such as Doom, Quake, Call of Duty, The Last of Us, Borderlands, Tomb Raider and Uncharted.

A first-person shooter game refers to a shooter video game viewed from a first-person perspective.

The latest stake purchase followed the Korean game publisher’s investments in Sweden-based Moon Rover Games and Poland-based Virtual Alchemy in 2024, as well as two Korean game startups Mistil Games and Vic Game Studio.

NCSOFT poured $3.5 million into Moon Rover as the sole participant in its seed funding round. It is now discussing publishing their hit games.

It has also secured the right to distribute Virtual Alchemy's role-playing game Band of Crusaders worldwide.

“Emptyvessel is a triple-A game studio founded by developers with proven success and expertise in the globally mainstream shooter genre, along with game art and sound experts with strong fandom,” said Park Byungmoo, a co-chief executive of NCSOFT, in the press release.

“We will continue to invest in securing new global intellectual property and build development pipelines by genre,” he added. 

Write to An Jeong-Hoon at Ajh6321@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.