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NCsoft quarterly numbers dip

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Nov 8, 2006 5:32 pm PT

Massively multiplayer online game publisher sees lowered revenue and profits, but tilts its full-year projections up.

Korean publisher NCsoft today announced its financial results for July through September, the third quarter of the company's fiscal year. While the company returned to profitability after a down second quarter of the year, both revenues and profits were smaller than they had been for the third quarter of 2005.

The company posted sales of 85 billion Korean won ($90.7 million) with a net profit of 12.8 billion won ($13.7 million), down from 87.8 billion won ($93.7 million) in revenue and the 20.4 billion won ($21.8 million) profit of a year ago.

The company attributed its success to sustained sales of Lineage and Lineage II (the popular Korean MMO games accounted for more than 76 percent of NCsoft's sales for the three-month period. Of the remainder, a little more than 14 percent came from Guild Wars, with more than 9 percent from the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchise. The rest of the company's active offerings--Auto Assault and the South Korean tennis game Smash Star--accounted for less than one-third of one percent of the publisher's sales.

However, for the year to date, NCsoft indicated that earnings had exceeded its initial projections, so it upped its earnings outlook for the year. The company now expects to make 339 billion won ($361.9 million), up from 330 billion won ($352.3 million), with an increase in operating income to 39 billion won ($41.6 million) from 20 billion won ($21.4 million).

The company's fourth quarter should benefit from the launch of Guild Wars: Nightfall, which NCsoft said had generated "extremely positive" early feedback. Other cited factors contributing to the company's expectations included the better-than-expected performance of the Lineage franchise, as well as "cost savings from improved operation efficiency." In June, the publisher laid off 70 employees from its Austin, Texas, studio.

39 Comments

  • Tuchaka

    Posted Mar 30, 2007 3:27 am PT

    lol, u were all wrong, nightfall did make a difference, a big one, and with guildwars: eye of the north and guildwars 2 comeing out soon, they will make even more

  • bossjimbob

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 9:05 pm PT

    Quote: Lazy_Marine "Guild Wars Night fall has sold terribly, the only 'peak' of sales they spoke of was from the dedicated hardcore minority fan-base when it was just released."

    Unless you work for NCsoft, I'm going to assume you don't know a thing about their sales numbers. Sorry, pal.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 2:44 pm PT

    i dont think nightfall will sell too well to make a huge difference

  • Andrew_LL

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 1:27 pm PT

    This is the worst day of my life ='(

  • Kh1ndjal

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 12:57 pm PT

    COOL REAL TIME ACTION WITH DESTRUCTABLE ENVIRONMENTS USING THE HAVOC PHYSICS ENGINE!!!

    auto assault = bad for ncsoft

  • Murpheus007

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 11:06 am PT

    Yeah I'm interested to see how Tabula Rasa comes out. I promised myself that I would never play a MMORPG again, but my wife can attest that I'm no good at keeping promises.

  • cjcr_alexandru

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 10:58 am PT

    "Vivendi Games earnings WOWed again" and now "NCsoft quarterly numbers dip". Can you see the connection?

  • WisdomLink

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 10:41 am PT

    They still have some decent MMOs and ORPGs

  • zeroking420_666

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 10:29 am PT

    medcore games = low profites. they do need to finish Tabula Rasa that seems like an awsome game.

  • WolfSkill5544

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 9:16 am PT

    ok

  • timts

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 6:10 am PT

    guild war by itself demands too much time for me to play with other players, I didnt buy any expansion since I cannot find >2 hour time segment which I can use to play that game.

  • Lazy_Marine

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 6:05 am PT

    Guild Wars Night fall has sold terribly, the only 'peak' of sales they spoke of was from the dedicated hardcore minority fan-base when it was just released. ArenaNET made their biggest screw up by releasing factions, which tainted GW image permanently.

  • Rhubarb9

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 5:31 am PT

    maybe they need more grindfest mmorpgs kekeke

  • hemakm3

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 5:06 am PT

    ok

  • Neoyamaneko

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 5:02 am PT

    That's what happens when you throw a bunch of mediocre MMOs out there and hoping one will stick.

  • igl

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 4:28 am PT

    Yes, yes. When will ppl realize that gw is a game you don't have to pay for! OH EHM GEE! IT CAN'T WORK! What if you don't have to pay fees for ANY games at all!? IT WOULD BE CHAOS!1

    Isn't WoW the game with the "less 15" nubs who have no idea about games at all, and just got a little hyper about the idea of a chatroom with animated avatars throwing colorful balls at each other, not knowing any other mmo's at all.

    I've been playing COH since e3 2000; or maybe even likely before taht, when the game had no graphics yet. And maybe it is a good game, if its only compared to a mmo, because every mmo is the same and so they must be all be the same and compared so we think it isn't bad.

    I think oblivion is pretty good because i don't care what my toon looks like since i came from wow, and it is totally fps, like cs is as i remember. So let me just recite the news up there in my own words, because i feel like telling the world my pov, so austin texas must be teh scheit to make games rather do it in japan. and then fourth quarter isn't in the report and so isn't nightfall because both happening in the end of the year and till start of 1st quarter agian. So yall wait till they make moneychart of nightfall.

  • Angryduck67

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 3:03 am PT

    Isn't Lineage 2 that one with all the gold farmers and identity thieves? Strange, that does not seem to phase the Koreans. Those guys have a pretty backwards perception of what makes a good MMORPG.

  • noxian

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 11:53 pm PT

    decebal
    I can't believe people still lie to themselves that GW is so great cause you don't have to pay. Well... I've been playing GW since... well E3 2004. Or maybe before taht. And... well I even made the mistake of getting caught in the hype and buying Factions... And what can I say... good game ... but not because you dont' have to pay. Cause it doesn't compare to any MMO. Yes you don't have to pay, but you GW is by no means Massively Multiplayer... You basically pay what you get for. You pay less... and get less. It's still ok... but it certainly lacks in comparison to ANY other Online Rpg. (Notice I didn't even say MMO).

    But fanboys can tell themselves whatever they want...
    --------------------------
    so true, spoken like a true GW hater (which is basically as shallow as an anti-fanboy)
    but haters can tell themselves they're more all they want...

  • LordDeArnise

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 10:25 pm PT

    Granted, no other online game may ever be as popular as the juggernaut that is WoW, but it does not mean that all other online RPG's are failures. I wouldn't say that Nightfall is a complete flop in sales because once word of its great story campaign gets to more ears, it should get a sales boost, and it brings more flavor and variety to its competitive part. Yes, the bulk of the Lineage series players are in Korea, but it does have its share of players from the rest of the world. From what I can deduce, NCSoft is a success in Korea, but it still a dwarf in the rest of the world compared to Blizzard & Sony, and at their rate, they will be. But they are still having success, they inspire its share of gamers, and where else can you get fiercely competitive 3-D RPG battles for nothing more than your initial purchase of the game and a steady expense for Internet Service.

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 9:58 pm PT

    yes but the things to do in GW are like um ya ... kill or um OH YA KILL ... no true crafts ... if u want killing then play a free game like SRO or Kal Online .... i mean geez u cant even have a free roam environment your restricted to set pathways .... zzz snore sounds alot like an RPG not an MMO since u cant even see people outside of towns. Game isnt bad but as the saying goes U DO get wat you pay for and the second they stop releasing xpansions ... bye bye to GW unline P2P games which even after initial purchase can bring in enough to keep the company running servers. Once noone purchases the expansions no more revenue which = either P2P or no game at all. Especially with they crappy auto assault junk . if they keep releasing crap that doesnt sell then they cant expect to keep high earnings.

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