NCsoft Q1 profits jump 315%

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted May 11, 2009 9:08 am PT

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

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