NCsoft West's Véronique Lallier

So we released Aion nearly a year ago, in December of last year, in Korea. The version we're releasing here in Europe is a 1.5 version. This new version will allow us to bring to the market answers to our consumers' needs. We have changed and improved our character creation to support a more westernised look and feel for the characters. We wanted to make sure this game was 100 per cent responding to our consumer needs and is something we have always been very strong on at NCsoft. We always listen to our consumers and try to improve the game following their requirements so basically all the character creation has been revamped to make sure they have some options which are closer to what they are used to and what they like.

It is now for instance possible to make a dwarf type of character, or an elf, which is something we’re more used to here in the West. We also improved and changed a little bit the way you move your character in the game to make sure, by default, that the control was on the keyboard and not on the mouse. Because in Korea they love moving the character by clicking on the screen, just using one hand. This control method is very used in Asia but not that used in the West. We wanted to make sure that was available for use by our consumers as well. On top of that, the game hasn't changed dramatically - it's still the same great game! It’s just been improved and the European and the Western users are going to benefit from the latest update. So we have the same content the Korean gamers are playing - so they are not six months behind with the content.

Very positive. The feedback we have got so far is very promising in France, Germany, UK and all of Europe. Players are looking forward to playing the game and pre-orders are looking very good. We think our consumers are very excited and we are as well.

Yes. Our developers based in North America are developing games created for the Western market and our Korean office and the Aion team want to develop a game for the West, as well as for the East. That is why we decided to implement all the needs and all the requirements of our European and Western users requested because this is always an incentive - to develop global products suitable for global markets. We have improved more and more over the years because we are coming to better understand our consumer needs. That said, it's something we've always intended to do.

I think no, because NCsoft is a very holistic company. Obviously, yes, the Korean market is more mature than ours. It is completely different in the way they sell to the consumer because in Korea it is basically direct to consumer using a PC buying network, whereas in Europe we are relying on our physical distribution network to reach our consumer. It's different but it's not difficult at all because our Korean office really understands how it works for us in the West and we have always been really supported by both the development team and the publishing team in our Korean HQ. I think the fact we are NCsoft West now and we are in one single entity in the West helps us to communicate in the best manner with our Korean HQ. It's definitely not a challenge.

At the moment, to be honest, we are the only Korean company that has managed to set up in the West. A few others have tried and have never really succeeded so... I think it's always good to have competition. We don't have a specific strategy to beat them..! We have different games for sure, but it doesn't really matter if the competition is coming from the East or the West - we still have the same strategy, and that’s to produce the best games possible for a global market. With Aion, with Guild Wars 2, with our unannounced titles, I think that’s what we’re doing.