NCSOFT is set to make $884 million (1 trillion KRW) in sales this year.
It is facing to make $884 million (1 trillion KRW) for the first time in company history as its sales in third quarter made a huge jump from its mobile game called Lineage M. Due to popularity of Lineage M, importance of mobile games has also increased greatly.
According to stock firms on the 23rd, NCSOFT made about $619 million (700 billion KRW) in sales up to third quarter of this year and this is 200% increase compared to same period from last year. Eugene Investment & Securities is estimating that NCSOFT made about $645 million (730 billion KRW) while Korea Investment & Securities is estimating that NCSOFT made about $610 million (690 billion KRW). Up until second quarter of this year, NCSOFT made $440 million (498.1 billion KRW) in sales.
Popularity of Lineage M led to increase in its performance. Lineage M, which was released on the 21st of June, made about $265 million (300 billion KRW) in sales just in the first month of its release. After it was released, it made between $4.86 million (5.5 billion KRW) and $5.30 million (6 billion KRW) in daily sales on average. Loyalty profit that comes from popularity of ‘Lineage 2 Revolution’, which was released by Netmarble Games, in South Korea and Japan is also showing an upward trend.
NCSOFT is planning to add siege warfare and individual trade to Lineage M by end of this year. It is expected that there will not be any competitions that will be able to compete with NCSOFT in sales for awhile.
NCSOFT is going to expand its mobile game business continuously. By end of this year, it is going to release ‘Blade & Soul Mobile’, ‘Lineage M’, and ‘Aion Legions of War’ in South Korea, Taiwan, and North America and Europe respectively.
‘Lineage Eternal’, which is a new Lineage series, has gained time until its release due to huge popularity of Lineage M.
Although PC online is the main platform for Lineage Eternal, it is designed so that it can be played through consoles or Smartphones. NCSOFT is especially considering to minimize any differences between PC play and Smartphone play through streaming service that comes from Cloud service. Key for NCSOFT is to actualize server technologies such as streaming environment and GPU Cloud. If this plan is implemented, NCSOFT will be able to secure unrivaled knowhow in interwork between online and mobile games.
There is a possibility that NCSOFT will place emphasis on other platforms besides PC during a commercialization process since its competitive edge in Lineage series is verified through popularity of Lineage M.
Because monthly payment of mature-rated online games has a limitation of $442 (500,000 KRW) based on current system, size of sales becomes hugely different depending on types of platforms even if same content is used.
NCSOFT is looking into types of release and charging methods as it has every possibilities open for Lineage Eternal business.
Staff Reporter Kim, Siso | siso@etnews.com