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cinderboy

Former NCsoft Staff Suspected Of Lineage III Theft



Korean police officials are investigating a reported theft of video game code taken from Korean-headquartered MMO publisher NCsoft, one of the region's top computer game publishers.

According to a new report by the online edition of major Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo, the Seoul Metropolitan Police are currently investigating the theft of source code relating to NCsoft's upcoming PC title Lineage III. According to the report, seven former NCsoft employees are thought to have shown and possibly passed on the code to an unnamed “major” Japanese game company.

The report noted that the seven individuals left the company in February, and subsequently interviewed with the Japanese company. During the interview, police believe that the Lineage III code in question was presented, and possibly copied during the demonstration.

In addition, these same employees are also suspected to have leaked the Lineage III program design via email or portable media last September. The report cites a spokesperson for NCsoft saying the potential damage resulting from the stolen code to be over a billion dollars.

The report also notes that this is the latest in a road of unfortunate events for the MMO publisher following the firing of an unnamed senior game developer for "poor leadership skills," which, according to the newspaper, was later followed by the voluntary departure of most of the the company's 90 person staff.

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AthlaS

So, basically, there might be private servers before the game even comes out?

cinderboy

Exactly~ lol ... Bet someone is doing it already

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nzrock

meh....been a rumor since last year already.
also about pservers coming out early...that wont happen. unless some1 smart will surf jap forums n shit lol.

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Neebus

They stole it to sell it off to one of NCSofts rivals. Believe it or not, in Korea MMO makers want to make the next Lineage clone that comes out better then Lineage 3 itself. Getting their hands on the code would really help.


Shoot, maybe Blizzard stole it for their starcraft MMO

nzrock

Are you in the right thread?

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Neebus

Yes. Blizzard must have stole it as a way to make sure the Starcraft MMO sells to every Korean ever.



EDIT: O I C WUT I DID THAR I called it Scarfraft

AthlaS

OMG FAIL

No, you fool. He's saying that Blizzard never stole anything. It was former NCsoft employees that stole it.

PowerGamer

I think he means that the staff sold it to Blizzard (hence 'blizzard stealing'),
for their own MMO. <.<

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Digitalised

OMG FAIL

a fool calling others a fool ( < === WTF ? )

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