Struggline NCSoft, Kakao Games pin hope on new titles
Krafton and Nexon are solidifying their leadership in the Korean game industry, posting strong earnings in the first quarter to start the year strong on the back of successful new titles and ongoing popularity of the existing intellectual property.
Krafton logged record-high first quarter revenue of 874.2 billion won ($625.8 million) and operating profit of 457.3 billion won from the January-to-March period this year, up 31.3 percent and 47.3 percent on year, respectively.
Krafton’s megahit battle royale shooter PUBG: Battlegrounds continued to attract gamers, with the maximum number of concurrent users reaching 1.4 million in March, according to the company.
The game developer’s life simulation game inZOI, which became available for early access on global gaming platform Steam in March, sold 1 million copies within a week of its debut to set a new record as the fastest Korean game to reach the milestone.
Nexon raked in 1.08 trillion won in revenue and 395.2 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter, up 5 percent and 43 percent respectively from the same period last year.
Nexon’s two longstanding popular games — Dungeon & Fighter, an online multiplayer side-scrolling action game, and MapleStory, an online side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG — led the company’s robust sales. With the veterans leading the way, The First Berserker: Khazan, a hardcore action RPG based on Dungeon & Fighter, and Mabinogi Mobile, a multi-access MMORPG, gave a boost as they were newly released in March.
Netmarble delivered an earnings surprise as it logged 623.9 billion won in revenue and 49.7 billion won in operating profit, up 6.6 percent and 1243.2 percent on year, respectively.
The operating profit, which shot way over the market consensus, was achieved thanks to the stable performances from its diverse lineup of games such as action RPG Solo Leveling:ARISE and fighting action games Marvel Contest of Champions.
RF Online Next, a space-themed MMORPG released on March 20, accounted for about 3 percent of the company’s quarterly game sales despite having only 10 days of impact on the quarterly earnings, raising optimism for the second quarter results.
In contrast to the three aforementioned companies, NCSoft and Kakao Games struggled as they did not have any meaningful new titles.
NCSoft earned 360.3 billion won in revenue and 5.2 billion won in operating profit to turn black in the first three months of this year.
Although the company launched Journey of Monarch, an MMORPG based on NCSoft’s flagship IP Lineage, in December last year, the game could not help the firm’s ailing figures greatly. NCSoft plans to roll out seven new titles through 2026 including Aion 2 in the second half of this year, vowing to hit 2 trillion won in annual revenue next year.
Kakao Games recorded 211.9 billion won in revenue and 12.4 billion in operating loss in the first quarter.
Kakao Games will look to the global market this year including the North American and European regions as the company plans to release games with various genres for different platforms, including open-world action MMORPG Chrono Odyssey, online action RPG ArcheAge Chronicles and mobile side-scrolling action PRG Goddess Order.
hwkan@heraldcorp.com
