MAY 11, 2011 • NCsoft announced that it would be closing all original Lineage servers on June 29. The decision was made because North American operations are no longer profitable. Existing players can continue to play Lineage free of charge until the servers go down. The MMO was originally launched in South Korea in 1998, and still has a wide user base in Asia.

Impact: Lineage was a monster hit in Korea where it has generated revenue of over $100 million annually for years.  In the U.S., Lineage was basically a non-starter with almost zero audience.  The product was a great example of how success in one market is not easy to replicate on a global basis.