According to the terms of the deal, NCSoft will pay Sony royalties for distributing and managing
EverQuest. While NCSoft would not elaborate on what its responsibilities will entail, it probably includes hosting and managing the game servers, providing in-game player support, and handling customer service.
EverQuest is planned for a Korean launch later this summer followed by a rollout in Taiwan and Hong Kong next year.
What makes the arrangement interesting is that NCSoft already manages a successful online fantasy RPG in Asia that it developed, called
Lineage.
Lineage is similiar in scope and design as
EverQuest, and the company is also about to rollout
L2, another online fantasy RPG game. So how it will manage to work as both a partner and competitor to Sony should be interesting. NCSoft stressed that its games and
EverQuest will complement each other, not compete.
