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With Tabula Rasa’s lukewarm launch, Guild Wars in slumber and other NCsoft games struggling to expand, sales numbers are 3% down. Yet, NCsoft managed to report a 14% increase in operating profit vs. the previous year. In a conference call for investors, tremendous insight to NCsoft’s strategy was revealed.

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Online games are microcosms of society. With February 14 drawing near, it is not unusual to see Valentine’s Day celebrations in virtual worlds. Yet, Cryptic Studios and NCsoft is taking the holiday to an extreme. Manticore & Sister Psyche, two heroes from City of Heroes, are getting married. The event also serves as a promotion for the City of Heroes Wedding Pack.

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Exteel, a “free-to-play” giant robot combat game from NCsoft, is now out of the testing phase. Even more surprisingly, there wasn’t a player wipe. I suppose that’s also good news for my Level 8 Corporal. With the official launch of Exteel, there’s also a new patch, which adds Micropayments or NCcoin to the game. $1 = 100 NCcoins.

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Who doesn’t love giant, dual-wielding, mechanized, robots? Exteel is loaded with mechanized warfare. The instant I held down both mouse buttons, I laughed loudly. Gleefully I held down the triggers, firing rounds into a crate. But wait, there’s more! In Exteel, you get to fight against other giant robots!

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NCsoft’s call to fame and fortune is Lineage, but their third-quarter earnings release illustrates the changing times. Year-over-Year sales for Lineage are down 20%, while City of Heroes / City of Villians sales are down 23% versus the previous year. That put NCsoft’s net profit down 21% from last year. There was good news for the computer game company, Guild Wars sales were up 16% versus the previous year and up 57% when compared to the previous quarter.

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