NCsoft Q1 profits jump 315%

Aion: Tower of Eternity lifts Korean publisher's quarterly earnings to $107.7 million, a 51 percent year-over-year rise.

NCsoft's newest massively multiplayer online role-playing game is paying significant dividends for the South Korean publisher. Having launched Aion: Tower of Eternity in Korea late last year, the publisher said today that the supernatural-themed MMORPG helped push first-quarter revenues to KRW133.4 billion ($107.7 million), a substantial 51 percent leap over the same period a year ago.

Aion is soaring.

Across the board, NCsoft saw its margins increase. Net profit for the period rocketed skyward 315 percent year-over-year to KRW33.5 billion ($27 million), and operating profit jumped 128 percent to KRW42.5 billion ($34.3 million). Breaking down sales figures by game, NCsoft said that Aion accounted for 34 percent of revenues, followed by Lineage II at 33 percent, Lineage at 23 percent, City of Heroes at 5 percent, and Guild Wars at 3 percent during the quarter.

"Aion has solidified its position as a new growth force without encroaching sales of the Lineage series," said NCsoft CFO Jaeho Lee in a statement. "Starting with its service in China in Q2, we are ready for a successful launch of this triple-A franchise in Japan, Taiwan, North America, and Europe within the second half of the year."

NCsoft went on to note that the sharp uptick in profits could be attributed to continued strong sales of Lineage and Lineage II.

One game that did not contribute to the publisher's quarter was Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa, which was officially taken offline at the end of February. Last week, the game's titular designer filed a $24 million suit against NCsoft, charging the publisher with breach of contract and fraud in relation to his "involuntary" departure from the company in November.

49 Comments

  • Sherwinb GameSpot staff member

    Posted Aug 19, 2009 6:46 pm PT

    wow

  • lunat1cakos

    Posted Jul 15, 2009 2:08 pm PT

    mmmmm hey every1... as an oldschool,ex-hardcore player of wow.. i need to inform all of u that the game.. isnt just " another smt" to hit blizzard's mmo (WoW). I preordered the game and i had access to closed and open beta of Aion . Rly the game is ... beyond the looks , no matter how good it the sourroundings seem to be the game has ****loads more to give except the excellent visuals . As for the graphics.. that i saw few ppl talking about it ... hmmm if u actually play the game and and wonder around... ull see that what u saw in the trailer was on low-med;p or at least i believe so.. . In fact the plants and most of the " amazing " sourundings are pseudo-3D made ,so i rly dont think the game will require THAT strong machines to play on low (low= insanely good visuals to believe its just low ;p ) .

    PS. cu in beta or ingame after its out

  • _Pedro_

    Posted Jun 18, 2009 8:40 am PT

    looks very promising.

  • Zloth2

    Posted May 12, 2009 6:42 pm PT

    "Hmmm Fantastic i cannot wait for Aion ^.^ finally people will see there are actually better quality mmo's out there than WoW."

    Heh, I wish. You know as well as I do what will happen. "It sure looks nice, but all my friends play WoW." "Oh no, my computer could NEVER handle graphics like that." Sigh.

    fps_d0minat0r - good point, Sony and NCSoft did have some sort of agreement to make MMOs on the PS3. No idea what happened after that.

  • NandoSupes

    Posted May 12, 2009 3:30 pm PT

    @Sayomi

    I agree,not that WoW is bad or anything,but is not the only MMO
    out there.

    I just find find Aion appealing.

  • Sayomi

    Posted May 12, 2009 2:41 pm PT

    Hmmm Fantastic i cannot wait for Aion ^.^ finally people will see there are actually better quality mmo's out there than WoW

  • NandoSupes

    Posted May 12, 2009 1:17 pm PT

    looking forward to the Aion US beta,the game looks promising indeed.

  • Mr_Fujiv1

    Posted May 12, 2009 8:04 am PT

    i aggree with babykid 160 how the hell are they making a 51% leap over im not very good a maths but that tells me alot of people must be buying their stuff

  • babykid160

    Posted May 12, 2009 7:47 am PT

    dbpvivi

    Poor Gameplay (Normally down to spell knowledge and lvl char)
    Poor Animations
    Poor Environments
    Poor Story (Or at least translates poorly)
    Just a level Grindfest.

    What makes these so popular and how can the Korean's afford to play these things. Do they favour them because:
    a) Monthly Prices are cheap in their country?
    b) Its made is Korea?
    c) They don't, they just play them because everyone else does and reasons from (b) apply?

    These games suck so much and cost a 100 times their worth. Why western gamers are stupid enough to pay monthly for these things I will never know. if you think you can do better then go for it. if you dont like mmorpg dont look at them

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted May 12, 2009 5:34 am PT

    Awesome news. NCSoft is dedicated to AAA MMO and Aion looks fantastic.

  • fps_d0minat0r

    Posted May 12, 2009 3:31 am PT

    didnt NCsoft make a contract with sony???

    where are all their console rpg's???

  • bassman1986

    Posted May 11, 2009 8:23 pm PT

    I hate Korean games!

  • Pete5506

    Posted May 11, 2009 7:46 pm PT

    good to see that there still going good

  • Kenji_Masamune

    Posted May 11, 2009 7:35 pm PT

    wow.. people still play lineage 1? not to shabby. Can't wait for Lineage 3 and GW2.

  • poma_123

    Posted May 11, 2009 7:25 pm PT

    so when does gw 2 come out!! omg i cant wait. Oh yeah is Aion good>??

  • Roken1

    Posted May 11, 2009 6:56 pm PT

    Hurray! Aion is basically prettier L2 on wings lol, can't wait till they have a US release!

  • gatsbythepig

    Posted May 11, 2009 4:37 pm PT

    Now that's impressive

  • runstalker

    Posted May 11, 2009 3:32 pm PT

    You know damn well that the vast majority of free-to-play games are a total mess, ultra cookie cutters of better games that are retrofitted with awful grinding mechanisms to justify micro-transaction revenue - so they can make a buck. You 'save' money just to lose lots and lots of time grinding poorly balanced content.

    Yes, Aion has a monthly fee, locked to a frequent update/event schedule, apparently of a quality that only a 'premium' model can offer. If you can't afford 50 cents a day (that's the breakdown) for a better quality MMO, you have bigger life problems to solve than showing up at tonight's raid.

    Time in beta was pretty cool. Yes, very Korean, but also very artful and high quality. The 'triple A' boast is accurate - obviously lots of cash spent making this game. Some beautiful sights and music. Different enough to stand on its own in North America? Not as a real WoW competitor, but yes, absolutely.

  • Underthere

    Posted May 11, 2009 3:12 pm PT

    Looks pretty interesting, but I've put too much time into wow to quit now.

  • sirkel28

    Posted May 11, 2009 2:18 pm PT

    Oh Yippy another Korean, Chinese type MMO. I can just imagine the art work will look nothing like other Korean made games and I'm sure there won't be endless grinding. (sarcasim off)

  • k0r3aN_pR1d3

    Posted May 11, 2009 2:07 pm PT

    I can say confidently that Aion is better than WoW as I have played it myself. The fact that it uses the Cryengine is pretty amazing in itself.

  • Batman_Vengence

    Posted May 11, 2009 1:24 pm PT

    well...perhaps this money will allow them to FINISH GUILD WARS 2,DAMMIT!I think I heard somewhere that this will,in fact,have a monthly fee,so I've kinda lost interest in this.

  • edant79

    Posted May 11, 2009 1:13 pm PT

    I guess this means they can still keep GW2 without a monthly fee.

    Right NC? RIIIGHT!!!

  • kavadias1981 posted May 11, 2009 12:21 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    kavadias1981

    Posted May 11, 2009 12:21 pm PT (hide)

    This news is boring. God, I can't wait for E3.

  • Darkness245

    Posted May 11, 2009 12:17 pm PT

    I cant wait to play this MMO...

  • Barighm

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:43 am PT

    Either the Korean government is protecting its locally developed MMO from WoW, or this game is really damn good.If the latter is true in this WoW-dominated era...good for them. Very good for them.

  • chappy_man

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:36 am PT

    is it free? cause i don't want to buy another mmo

  • downloadthefile

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:32 am PT

    hooray. now they have some money to keep makin GW2

  • TehEliteElite

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:19 am PT

    Poor Guild Wars...

    We need GW2!

  • CoolKidX

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:15 am PT

    daaaaaaaayuuummmmm

  • trj156

    Posted May 11, 2009 11:02 am PT

    i wonder how much they are making off dungeon runners?

  • billonis10

    Posted May 11, 2009 10:45 am PT

    looks really good

  • XenoLair

    Posted May 11, 2009 10:38 am PT

    This game uses the crytek engine .. so it should be good

  • Nerkcon

    Posted May 11, 2009 10:36 am PT

    Yes, Aion will have a monthly fee. All the best MMOs have monthly fees.

  • jakarai

    Posted May 11, 2009 10:35 am PT

    I want to try this game out can't wait for it to come state side. Anyone know if it will have a monthly fee?

  • PremiumUnleaded

    Posted May 11, 2009 10:30 am PT

    315% is quite a jump.
    o_O

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