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NCsoft buys smartphone app studio

by Jef Reahard on Jul 28th 2011 11:00AM

In the past, NCsoft has been rather cautious about mobile gaming, and aside from dipping a toe in the pool with an Aion smartphone app, the South Korean game developer has remained on the sidelines. Yesterday the company announced that it's diving in headfirst via the acquisition of Hotdog Studio, a Seoul-based mobile developer known for Dark Shrine.

We've known for some time now that NCsoft also has plans to include mobile functionality with Guild Wars 2, and its iOS/Android program will enable chatting, real-time map viewing, and other as-yet unrevealed functionality.

NCsoft acquired 58.3 percent of Hotdog's shares, and is looking to "enhance our ability in the smart phone environment," according to a publisher representative.

Source: Gamasutra

Tags: aion, aion-exchange, android, guild-wars-2, gw2, hotdog, hotdog-studio, ios, mmo-industry, mobile, mobile-apps, mobile-gaming, ncsoft, smartphone

Reader Comments (9)

hope it turns out to be a "smart" decision

Would be nice if the new studio's first project was a mobile authenticator for Guild Wars 2. They could roll that out right along with the beta. I think that would be a first in MMO gaming, having the authenticator out with the game release.

@Nearly Departed

a mobile auth. would be a cool thing, supposedly GW2 will have integration with a mobile app beyond simply the login screen but only the dev's know how much.

@Nearly Departed I hope so too, we're prolly looking at auction house and mailbox access for this as well. Be cool to be able to chat it up with your friends that are currently ingame as well.

@Seldra

Your talking about the "Guild Wars 2 - Extended Experience" from a news bit last year.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/112/1122491p1.html

Watching Dynamic events unfold on my iPad would be amazingly helpful in or out of game.

@Nearly Departed

I am hoping NCSoft will connect mobile apps and their MMOs in more new and creative ways. Lots of creative things can be done in this space!

City of Pocket Heroes!

I wanted to point this out on the post about the Aion iOS app, but Massively/Joystoq's comment system is a piece of complete $h!t.

iOS has apps developed for it before Android because the platform as a whole has much more software support, and people take to the App Store way more than the Android Market.

Not to mention fragmentation, don't want lag in your app lawl.

@JohnLane

You're a complete moron.

Off yourself.

NCsoft buys smartphone app studio

Reader Comments (9)

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 11:08AM alzeer said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 11:17AM Nearly Departed said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 12:15PM Arkanaloth said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 12:37PM Seldra said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 12:53PM Nearly Departed said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 1:42PM Space Cobra said

Posted: Jul 28th 2011 2:40PM Daemodand said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 11:50AM stiqlol said

Posted: Jul 30th 2011 11:51AM stiqlol said

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