According to Korean newspaper Digital Chosun IIibo, source code of NCSoft’s upcoming MMO Lineage III was stolen by former employees and sold to an unnamed Japanese competitor. This is believed to have been done when the ex-employees provided examples of their work during a series of job interviews with the other company in February; they are also believed to have played a part in the leak of the Lineage III program design late last year.

South Korea-based NCSoft projects losses of more than 1 trillion Korean won (US$1 billion) from the theft. The company is also said to be going through troubled times: according to industry insiders, the dismissal of a senior game developer as a result of poor leadership skills caused most of the company’s 90-person development team to quit. There are also internal struggles within NCSoft, though details are unknown.