Struggling to find growth momentum in the mobile gaming segment, NCSoft saw its net income drop 27 percent in 2015, compared to a year earlier, according to the company’s regulatory filing Thursday.
The company posted 166.4 billion won ($139.3 million) in net income while its operating profit stood at 237.5 billion won, down 15 percent compared to a year prior.
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Kim Taek-jin, CEO of NCSoft (Yonhap) |
The company earned 838.3 billion won in revenue, slightly down from 838.7 billion won in 2014.
The company, well known for its online PC game “Lineage,” raked in more than half of its entire sales on its home turf, at 533.8 billion won. The Korean game developer earned 124.3 billion won in North America and Europe, 42.7 billion won in Japan, and 38.9 billion won in Taiwan. The rest of the sales came from royalties.
The company’s flagship intellectual property games, or franchise games, “Lineage” and “Blade & Soul” posted 312.9 billion won and 113.9 billion won, respectively, in sales, record highs since their launches in 1998 and 2013.
“’Blade & Soul’ garnered a very positive response in the North American and European market and the game will help move businesses there into the black,” said an executive on a conference call Thursday, saying the mobile game would hit the Chinese market by March this year.
In order for NCSoft to improve profits, some market analysts said the Pangyo-headquartered company should fast follow in the footsteps of other PC online game powerhouses Nexon and Netmarble, which have been shifting their focus toward mobile games.
Buoyed by robust growth of its mobile game business, Nexon posted 1.8 trillion won in revenue last year, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Its net income and net profit jumped 88 percent and 37 percent on-year, respectively, to 524.1 billion won and 592.1 billion won.
The company said mobile business accounted for 22 percent of its entire sales last year. Its sales from mobile games in Korea, in particular, jumped 136 percent in the October-December period on-year, and 78 percent for the full year of 2015.
The company said the steady growth of existing PC games, including “MapleStory,” and the success of new mobile games including “HIT” and “DomiNations,” contributed to the outstanding business performance last year.
By Kim Young-won (
wone0102@heraldcorp.com)
