NC

NC has released its third sustainability report, titled “NCSOFT ESG PLAYBOOK 2022.” The cover artwork, featuring the THRONE AND LIBERTY painting, perfectly symbolizes NC’s unwavering commitment to embracing sustainability and pursuing its global initiatives.

This article highlights NC’s significant accomplishments over the past year, with a specific focus on the fundamental principles of sustainable management: “Joy Created Together,” “Digital Responsibility,” and “Qualitative Leap of Society.”

The first core value of sustainable management is “Joy Created Together.” NC aims to foster a development culture that reduces hatred and discrimination within their content and actively incorporates customer feedback from the game development stage onwards.

First, NC is implementing “culturalization” to embrace higher cultural diversity in games. It is the process of creating content that everyone can empathize with by understanding and incorporating surface-level diversity (gender, age, race, etc.) and cultural diversity (language, clothing, traditions, etc.) into a game. Additionally, NC incorporates a review of linguistic and cultural taboos that ensures adherence to moral and ethical values through quality assurance (QA) and constantly reflects it in the content.

Over the past year and into the first half of this year, NC has made significant strides in improving customer communication through various initiatives. Notably, the company has embraced an open R&D development culture called “NCing (Link),” which involves publicly disclosing the development process of new IPs like PUZZUP, Battle Crush, and Project G. This approach has allowed NC to engage with customers more effectively and transparently. Moreover, NC has expanded the platforms for customer interaction with its brand. In August of last year, the company launched its official brand media, “NC PLAY (Link),” which serves as a hub for a diverse range of content. Among the offerings are newsroom articles that delve into NC’s corporate values, culture, games, and R&D technologies. To foster active engagement, the company has introduced interactive, vertical, and short-form content. A commendable aspect of NC’s communication strategy is the effort the company has made to cater to its global audience. Not only does NC provide content in Korean, but the company has also extended support in English, Japanese, and Traditional Chinese, ensuring effective communication with its diverse customer base worldwide.

The second fundamental principle of sustainable management at NC is “Digital Responsibility.” As both a platform and service operator, as well as a technology developer and implementer, NC places utmost importance on establishing a secure service environment. Throughout the technology development process, the company remains committed to ethical considerations, ensuring that safety and responsibility are at the forefront.

To achieve this, NC is actively working on creating a robust global-level information security system, centered around the Information Security Center. This system is designed to shield corporate assets from external threats and provide players with a safe and secure user experience. The company’s dedication to maintaining high standards has been recognized through its attainment of the APEC Cross-Border Privacy Rules (APEC-CBPR) certification in April. Notably, this certification, issued by APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), marks NC as the first company in the domestic gaming industry to receive such recognition.

Furthermore, NC strives to establish a service environment where players can enjoy games stably in any situation. NC’s I&O Center operates and maintains infrastructure and systems with duplication, dualization, and diversification to provide an optimal gameplay environment without interruption or delay. Duplication refers to the construction of two identical systems in preparation for system failures. Dualization and diversification are strategies that involve establishing multiple independent locations for infrastructure and operational environments, such as the Data Center, as the foundation for services.

NC’s efforts to develop AI technology ethically are also being continued. NC has launched the AI technology blog “NC Research” to facilitate easy understanding of the principles and construction process of AI models, particularly in relation to the emerging topic of generative AI.

Lastly, NC is fulfilling its responsibility as a member of society to protect the environment and contribute to a qualitative leap in society, including the growth of future generations and the development of local communities.

Building upon the establishment of the “Environmental Management Practice Principles” as the cornerstone for environmental management last year, NC has expanded the scope of environmental management to include four domestic subsidiaries (NC ITS, NCSOFT Service, NTREEV, and NC Dinos). In this year’s report, NC has incorporated the *TCFD disclosure recommendations for the first time to enhance the disclosure of climate-related information. The report includes the identification and assessment of risks and opportunities associated with climate change for the company’s sustainability. NC plans to continue building the “Climate Change Risk Management Process” to establish counter strategies and monitor these risks.

NC is also continuing its efforts to strengthen the capabilities of future generations. NC Cultural Foundation operates the Projectory business to promote the creativity of future generations as well as the “MY AAC” service to address the communication difficulties faced by individuals with speech impairments and improve societal awareness of communication disabilities. “MY AAC” is to release a new service in 2023, which incorporates natural AI voices and enhances usability.

Efforts are also being made to foster mutual growth with local communities. NC [WITH] PLAY, which started in 2022, is NC’s unique community contribution project where employees voluntarily participate in sharing joy with local communities. They have implemented coding education, blood donation, braille book production, and environmental campaigns, and they plan to continue various social contribution activities on diverse topics based on the core values of ESG management.

Yoon Songyee, the Chairperson of the ESG Steering Committee, emphasized that NC has been making various efforts, understanding that ESG management is a crucial element in ensuring sustainability in a rapidly evolving global environment. She further stated that in 2023, NC will focus more on sustainable management, based on “righteous goals and sincere practices,” while transparently disclosing the outcomes. Additionally, the company will continue to expand communication with various stakeholders, including the board.

NC will continue to prioritize sustainability and constantly review all internal and external areas that may have an impact on it. We hope you will pay close attention to NC’s sincere efforts to provide greater joy to our global customers and grow together with our society.