It’s been one hell of a quarter for NCsoft – and we mean that for every interpretation of the phrase.
As readers might recall, in its Q2 2024 earnings report back in August, NCsoft was seeing a severe decline in profits – one described by Korean press as a “state of management crisis.” Even so, as we noted, Guild Wars 2 was continuing to perform well, and the company vowed it wouldn’t shift its focus away from core MMORPGs.
But in the interim, NCsoft announced a major organizational restructure, coupled with huge layoffs, in an attempt to avoid “becoming a chronically loss-making company.” The company also announced a sunset for Battle Crush (which never fully launched), promised to send Blade and Soul Neo westward, and finally got Throne & Liberty out the door here in the west, where it’s captured millions of players.
So that brings us to NCsoft’s Q3 2024 financials, which certainly help explain the panic back in October. While the company’s revenues are fairly even with the last year (9% up since last quarter and down only 5% since Q3 2023), its operating profit and net income are both in the red for the first time in a long time.
On the mobile side, Lineage M has surged back to the forefront of the company’s portfolio and kept the quarter from being a total bomb. Likewise, Classic Lineage and Lineage 2 on PC will end the year even with how they started, as Aion and Blade & Soul continue to dwindle. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the breakdown is Guild Wars 2, which put in its weakest showing of the year even as it launched an expansion (Redditors argue the expansion bump won’t come until Q4 – we’re not sure about that. We instead note that Janthir Wilds was up against some hefty World of Warcraft competition in August).
GW2 Sales from NCSoft Q3 2024 Financials
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Since you’re surely wondering: NCsoft has been failing to disclose per-game revenue data on Throne & Liberty ever since the MMO launched in Korea since the end of 2023. It launched globally in September 2024, but we still have no data. However, NCsoft does note that T&L’s “early access packs have surpassed [its] internal projections,” but it doesn’t seem to have made up for losses elsewhere.
During the investor call, CFO Willy Hong apologized for the “disappointing results” and recapped for investors the company’s plans to diversify and harvest revenue from both existing MMOs and future “megahit success” titles. Later this year, the company is expecting Journey of Monarch to perform well, and in 2025, the company is promising multiple new games – including Aion 2 – and a new server for Lineage 2M.
“For next year, we are expecting to have five releases, which includes our most expected titles, including Aion 2, [Project] LLL, and Tactan [Knights of the Gods]. And as we recently announced, we are going to also have a release of Breakers [Unlock the World], which is created by Vic Game, and also a new genre title based on the existing IP, which will target the global audience. And for external IPs and collaborations, besides Moon Rover and Vic Game, we’re going to announce our news regarding investment and publishing deals which will be made one in Korea and one overseas. One of these titles will be released in 2025, and the remaining one will also be released soon.”
Aion 2, Hong says, will target a global market but will take a “completely different approach” from Throne & Liberty “in terms of game design content, especially focused on comat, the monetization scheme, and the marketing strategies.” It also sounds as if it’ll focus heavily on progression and co-op play rather than competitive play – which would be a big deviation from original Aion. Indeed, that’s backed up later when Hong confirms that the company aims to use its core MMO IPs for “new genre games.”
Unfortunately, Hong also confirms last month’s news that NCsoft has shut down six projects and shuttered several teams and encouraging a “company-wide voluntary resignation program” in an attempt to reduce the “high fixed costs” he says are creating profit deficits. Ug.
