RPG legend Van Caneghem signs on with NCsoft

Jon Van Caneghem, founder of New World Computing and creator of one of gaming's most popular and admired role-playing franchises--Might and Magic--has joined the US arm of Korean RPG publisher NCsoft. Van Caneghem joins Austin, Texas-based NCsoft North America (which was founded by Ultima creator Richard "Lord British" Garriott in April 2001) as its executive producer and is already at work on a new, albeit unannounced, title.

Van Caneghem founded New World Computing in 1983 and published his first Might and Magic title in 1987. The game was coded for the Apple II and was sold via a marketing campaign consisting of two print ads and an 800-number for a phone in Van Caneghem's living room. In 1996, he sold the company to 3DO at a time when smaller developers and publishers were being forced out of the market. Over the life of both the Might and Magic RPG franchise and Van Caneghem's strategy game franchise, Heroes, an estimated 20 million units were sold worldwide.