Neowiz Games Corp., a Korean online game publisher, said Wednesday it reached 147.7 billion won ($136 million) in sales and 33.8 billion won in operating profit in the first quarter, breaking its quarterly record due to sharply rising overseas sales.

The company, well-known for its game portal Pmang, expanded overseas sales by 141 percent ― taking up 48 percent of its overall sales ― compared to the last quarter, setting the figure at 70.3 billion won. Local sales also increased by 26 percent, reaching 77.4 billion won from January-March, said its officials.

Cross Fire, Neowiz’s online first-person shooter game, contributed to the rising sales abroad by securing up to 2.7 million people in China registered to play the game simultaneously, officials said. The game is also a hit in other foreign markets such as South America and Russia.

On a local level, FIFA Online 2 grabbed the attention of many online game players here, according to company officials.

Other online games developed by the company, which was established in April 2007, include Perfect KO, Warlord and a baseball game called Slugger.

“I’m proud to say Neowiz Games has set one of the best industrial records in terms of quarterly earnings,” said Neowiz’s chief executive officer Yoon Sang-kyu. “We will work toward achieving balanced growth in Korea and overseas, while releasing new additions of games in different genres.”

On another front, SK Communications also announced in its quarterly earnings report that it reached 59.78 billion won in sales and 3.86 billion won in operating profit for the first quarter.

Although figures indicate that sales fell 10.1 percent compared to the fourth quarter of last year, the company’s operating profit rose 15 percent, bringing the company back into the black. The company runs Cyworld and Nate.

Display advertisements made up a large percentage in sales, recording 25.59 billion won, followed by businesses related to content and others with 24.65 billion won and searches with 8.93 billion won, company officials said.

“We’re establishing positive results through Cyworld and the Nate search engine,” said the company’s financial chief Song Jae-gil. “We plan on putting more effort into leading the changes in the market and making various attempts in the future.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)