MMORPGs are big business nowadays. Sony Online Entertainment recently announced it had over half a million subscribers to Star Wars Galaxies after only a year. Conversely, setting up a new online game requires a seriously high outlay of cash: Ultima X and WarHammer Online both fell by the wayside this year, due to financial restrictions. Only the big boys of the industry can now afford to spend eight-figure sums on creating a persistent online world. Enter NCSoft, a South Korean developer of online games and unknown outside its home nation until surprising North America in 2000 with a string of entertaining titles including Lineage, a game that NCSoft proudly claim netted them over 300,000 simultaneous connections around the world. NCSoft has committed itself to opening a European base in London, but until then, the only option available for European gamers is to download the client from the developer‘s website.