NCSoft Europe

And someone else picks the middleware for PC and PS3.

News by GamesIndustry International Contributor

Published on June 23, 2008

For Immediate Release

June 23, 2008

CLERMONT-FERRAND, France — June 23, 2008 — Adding yet another prominent game developer to its client list, Allegorithmic today announced that its procedural texturing middleware, ProFX 2.6, will be integrated by NCsoft® Europe and its development teams. ProFX was selected for its ability to quickly produce extremely small texture files – dramatically reducing downloading times and greatly improving the gamers’ overall experience. NCsoft Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of online games is well known for titles such as Guild Wars®, City of Heroes® / City of Villains® and its most successful and longest running title, Lineage® II: The Chaotic Throne, which has reached over 17 million players worldwide. NCsoft plans to utilize ProFX on PC and PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) platforms.

“The Allegorithmic team has been excellent to work with, very responsive to our specific game and platform needs,” commented Jay Scott, head of product development for NCsoft Europe. “The reduced footprint that ProFX affords us will give users a better game experience by vastly decreasing client size and reducing update download times.”

ProFX 2.6 is the only middleware that allows game developers to professionally render high-quality procedural textures. ProFX 2.6 procedural texture files are very small in size -- typically 500 to 2,000 times smaller -- making them ideal for use in massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), virtual communities, casual and downloadable games.

“NCsoft is the number one company in the world for online gaming,” said Dr Sébastien Deguy, Allegorithmic’s president and founder. “They continually push the envelope with new content, strategies and innovative technology. NCsoft immediately recognized that ProFX was the right technology to take their games and content to the next level and have truly embraced it. I admire them for their forward thinking and I’m extremely proud to have them as a client.”

About NCsoft Europe

NCsoft Europe (NCE) is headquartered in Brighton, United Kingdom and is wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation, the world's leading developer and publisher of online games. NCsoft operates publishing offices within North America, Japan, Taiwan, China and Thailand and has development studios in Seattle, Austin, California (North America) and Seoul (Korea). NCE recently announced the formation of the first European development studio, based within the UK.

NCE began operations on 1st September 2004 and serves as a central hub for all NCsoft sales, marketing and distribution operations in Europe, via its European distribution network. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage II (November 2004), City of Heroes (4th February 2005), Guild Wars (28th April 2005), City of Villains (31st October 2005), Guild Wars Factions™ (28th April 2006), Guild Wars Nightfall™ (27th October 2006), Guild Wars: Eye of the North™ (31st August 2007) and Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa™ (2nd November 2007). More information about NCsoft Europe can be found at http://eu.plaync.com.

About Allegorithmic

Founded in 2003 and based in Clermont-Ferrand, France, Allegorithmic is an emerging leader in the 3D effects industry. The company specializes in creating advanced authoring software and middleware that is designed to simplify the process of creating high-quality textures for next-generation content developers. The company’s two flagship products are ProFX and Substance. Allegorithmic has partnered with some of the industry’s leading games and technology companies, including Dassault Systèmes, Epic Games, Emergent Games Technologies, Microsoft, Intel and Luxology. For more information on Allegorithmic and its products, please visit www.allegorithmic.com.

#####

NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, PlayNC, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Lineage, The Chaotic Throne, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, press only:

Liaison Inc.

Jennifer Foss, (503) 796-9822, jennifer@liaisonpr.com

Reader contact:

Allegorithmic

31 rue Gonod

63000 Clermont-Ferrand

France

+33 4 73 34 70 80