Massively interviews Ntreev on rebranding to SG Interactive

Last month we heard that North American MMO publisher Ntreev USA was rebranding the company as SG Interactive. Originally established in Southern California in 2006, Ntreev was a relative newcomer to the MMO scene. It has since published the manga-esque free-to-play titles Grand Chase, Pangya and Trickster Online. The rebranding was announced alongside news that the company would be launching a new online portal and taking on board several new free-to-play games.

For fans of Ntreev's titles, the news of rebranding brought about a few concerns. Would players lose their Ntreev points during the switchover? And with the addition of new games to the mix, would the existing games get less development time? We caught up with SG to get the lowdown on its recent rebranding, the direction the company is now taking, and what it all means for players.

Skip past the cut for the full interview.

Massively: Besides promising "a greater variety of games and services," how else will your average player benefit from this change?

SG Interactive: Great question, SG Interactive will not only continue to provide our players with great service and regular updates to our current games, but also strive to provide a better overall experience to our players. Our community is important to us, and we recognize that players have certain expectations; we will try our best to meet and exceed those expectations as we grow by bringing more games, new partners, better support and content to the table.

Should players be worried that the level of development might drop on the older titles like Pangya?

SG Interactive will continue to fully support all the games our players play and love. We are not going to drop any titles, in fact we're planning a major revamp for Trickster Online, the first title we released, before the end of this year.

Should players be concerned about their Ntreev points and the transition?

Not at all! Ntreev points will not be removed or modified in any way. SG Interactive will still use Ntreev points.

Your Ntreev cards are already very popular, how do you think this will affect their sales?

We don't anticipate that our players will change their expectations in any way based on the changes we've making as a company. Players will continue to be able to use Ntreev Cards to recharge their points across all of our titles.

Can you tell us a bit about some of these new titles you promise? When can current players expect to see some new games?

We have actually just announced Project Blackout, an online First Person Shooter that we're extremely excited about not only because it brings a new genre to our current games lineup, but also because it gives our players a competitive space to flourish in. We definitely hope to bring in more new titles of the same quality and caliber as we have in the past, and as we continue to grow our game library will become more diverse and expansive. That said, we won't compromise quality for quantity; we want to deliver the kinds of titles that our gamers expect from us and even some that may surprise them.