NCsoft’s Q3 2021 financials are a story of good news, bad news. Let’s do the bad news first: The Korean gaming giant reported a decrease in revenues, 7% since last quarter and 14% since this quarter last year, which isn’t really as bad as it sounds since last year was huge for the company thanks to COVID. But it also represents a low-mark for the company over the past four quarters.
NCsoft chalks up the revenue hit to its “legacy PC online game sales” declining, particularly Lineage 1, which is down 42% since Q3 2020, and before you assume those players rushed to mobile, know that LineageM’s revenues are down 39% for the year too. While Blade & Soul has fallen off and Aion’s Classic bubble appears to be over, it’s actually Guild Wars 2 that’s worthy of note here for western MMORPG fans. That’s because the game’s quarterly revenues are actually up for the quarter and the year, which is saying a lot since exactly one year ago the game was having its best quarter since Q3 2018 – and now it’s even topped that.
We’re assuming that End of Dragons preorders aren’t realized in these figures yet, but the summer reveals and recent expansion beta events, coupled with the mass-exodus from a certain rival MMORPG, have pushed players to the game with their wallets in tow. All in all, it’s an excellent place to be as ArenaNet marches on to its February 2022 launch.
