Blizzard, NCsoft vets form En Masse

The Asian gaming market is flush with home-grown massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and a portion of those will soon be making their way to the West. This week, Korean MMORPG company Bluehole Studio announced the formation of En Masse Entertainment, a new subsidiary focused on bringing "global" online games to Western audiences.

En Masse is led by a number of veterans of the Western MMORPG scene. The publishing arm is headed up by Dr. Jae-Heon Yang, who previously served as chief technical officer at NCsoft. Patrick Wyatt, whose extensive credits at Blizzard Entertainment include work on the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo franchises, serves as En Masse's chief operating officer. EA, Microsoft, and NCsoft vet Chris Lee fills the role of vice president of publishing. Aion producer Brian Knox will reprise that role at En Masse.

En Masse's first project will be Bluehole's TERA, a fantasy-themed MMORPG that emphasizes real-time, dynamic combat. While details on the game remain largely under wraps, players will be able to choose from six different races, who must "work together for the common good." En Masse also said that individual player actions will have an impact on the "balance of power" in the game.

TERA is scheduled to launch for the PC in Korea this year, with the Western rollout to follow. En Masse intends to debut the project at the 2010 Game Developers Conference, which takes place in San Francisco from March 9 to 13.