In a bid to make its games more readily accessible, NCSoft has joined a growing number of publishers who are now using Valve’s Steam digital distribution platform. NCSoft said that it will make available a number of NCsoft games and expansions. Specifically, the following games and expansions will be added: Linage, Lineage 2: The Chaotic Throne, Guild Wars Game of The Year Edition, City of Heroes Architect Edition, Guild Wars Nightfall, Guild Wars Faction, and Guild Wars Trilogy. NCSoft also announced that its soon to be released MMOG Aion: The Tower of Eternity will also be added to the service when it is released in North America and Europe later this year.

As a way to entice users to buy from Steam, Valve and NCSoft are offering various deals, like a 50 percent discount on Lineage 2 and a 10 percent discount on Guild Wars: Game of The Year Edition.

I have to say that I’m surprised about Steam’s performance. When it was first released, it gained a lot of negative feedback and not a few critics even predicted that it won’t last. Now, it seems like Steam is becoming an increasingly popular platform for game distribution.

NCSoft, the creator of popular MMORPGs like the Lineage series and Guild Wars has consolidated its studios outside of native South Korea, and has formed into a Seattle-based subsidiary NC West.

The existing subsidiaries, such as NC Interactiev, NC Europe, ArenaNet, and NC Austin, will be under the NC West banner. There are however unconfirmed reports that we’re looking at layoffs for these companies, with the studio in Brighton, UK, said to be losing as many as 50, possibly up to 70, employees. No official word on this yet though.

The step to consolidate its forces is a natural one for NCsoft, with Richard Garriott’s hyped MMO “Tabula Rasa” not being the success the company had hoped. While NCsoft have some strong titles in its portfolio, such as “Lineage”, “City of Heroes/Villains”, and “Guild Wars”, these MMO franchises needs to be updated to really compete with “World of Warcraft”.

While NCSoft is optimistic that future releases would have widespread acclaim in the Korean gaming community, the company is hopeful that new iterations of its Guild Wars franchise would also be warmly welcomed by wester gamers.

[Hat tip to Thord]