NCsoft earnings up 9 percent

In 1998, NCsoft released Lineage in South Korea, with a US release three years later. In 2003, Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle arrived in the Asian nation, about eight months ahead of its North American debut.

The series wasn't exactly a smash hit on this side of the pond, with Lineage II having sold just over 141,000 copies in the US as of March 2007, according to NPD Funworld. However, back in South Korea, the massively multiplayer online game and its predecessor remain wildly popular.

How popular, exactly? According to figures released today by NCsoft, Lineage II generated some 32.8 billion won ($35.3 million) in sales during the first quarter of 2007, followed by the original Lineage's 30.4 billion won ($32.8 million) haul. The two games helped the publisher generate a total of 50 billion won ($53.8 million) in South Korea, 12.9 billion won ($13.9 million) in North America, 7.8 billion won (8.4 million) in Europe and 8.1 billion won (US$8.7 million) in Japan.

Worldwide, NCsoft took in just 6 billion won ($6.5 million) from City of Heroes (2004) and its City of Villains (2005) expansion pack during Q1 2007. That amount was roughly half the 11.5 billion won ($12.4 million) generated by Guild Wars (2005) and its two sequels, Factions and Nightfall (both 2006).

Lineage and Lineage II accounted for 79 percent of the Seoul, South Korean publisher's 84.7 billion won ($91.2 million) of revenue during the quarter, which was 9 percent higher during that same period in 2006. For the quarter, NCsoft saw net income--that is, profit--of 14.1 billion won ($15.2 million).