Subscription History
NCsoft has reported that Lineage had at one point more than three million subscribers, most of them in Korea. The magnitude of the number Korean subscribers compared to other countries has sparked a number of theories. A ban on some Japanese imports until 1998 has been cited for delayed growth in its video game console market.
As of April 2008, Lineage had a little under 1 million active subscriptions. By way of comparison, World of Warcraft had substantially more active subscriptions, with over 11.5 million. On the 11th of May 2011, NC Interactive, the subsidiary of NCSoft in the United States announced it would shut down the Lineage servers (3 at that time) because of poor subscription revenues. Various events were scheduled to take place in the weeks remaining. Players were given free subscriptions to other NCSoft titles of their choice.
As of June 29, 2011, Lineage has shut down all servers in NA, permanently. They said they want to focus on the Asian market, leaving it open.
Between the start in 1998 and August 2012, NCsoft has accumulated USD $1.3 billion in sales from Lineage.
Read more about this topic: Lineage (video game)
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