financials

Nexon sees huge increase in revenue, splits stock

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Things are looking pretty rosy for Nexon as the studio posted its Q4 2017 financials. Revenue and profit both shot up compared to the year previous, and Dungeon & Fighter has proved to be a smash hit in China.

Nexon reported that it made around $2.2 billion in revenue for 2017, a number that is up 28.3% from 2016. The company attributed the success to increased sales in China and stable economies among the countries in which it does business.

The studio made 72% of its revenue from PC and 28% from mobile. Breaking income down by countries, China was the largest at 43%, followed by Korea (40%), Japan (6%), and North America (6%). Nexon also split its stock at the time of this report, taking it from 440 million shares to 1.4 billion shares.

Earlier this month, the studio was hit by a round of layoffs that may have impacted as many as 20% of the company’s western office.

Source: Gamasutra, Investor Relations

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NCsoft Q4 2017: Guild Wars resurges as Blade & Soul and Lineage M drive profits

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NCsoft has money to cheer about this past financial quarter, as it posted another year of solid growth. Revenue and operating profit were up 87% and 86% respectively year-over-year, though of course the quarter doesn’t quite compare to the blockbuster that was Q3 last year when Lineage M hit Asia.

Lineage M continued to drive good mobile sales for the company even after its shine wore off, accompanied by Aion, Lineage, and Lineage II, which are down YOY for the quarter and the year. Blade and Soul is outperforming everything but mobile at this point and this quarter held even YOY, at least globally.

And as for Guild Wars 2? Well, no surprise there: The Path of Fire expansion was quite a boon, more than doubling the game’s quarterly revenue YOY and pushing total revenue past 2016’s (though not past 2015’s, when Heart of Thorns launched at a price two-thirds higher). (Recall that SuperData just included GW2 on its top 10 list of premium PC games by revenue [at an annual figure slightly higher than what’s represented here] and that Q2 last year was the game’s worst quarter ever, so this is a comfortable comeback.)

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Nexon’s Q3 2016 financials ‘solid’ thanks to China, MapleStory, and Dungeon&Fighter

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Nexon’s third quarter financial report is out this week, and the company is calling it a “solid” one, with revenues boosted higher than expected thanks to overperforming updates for MapleStory and Dungeon&Fighter but still down 11% year-over-year (though up once currency exchange is taken into account – the Japanese yen has become more valuable relative to the Chinese yuan, the source of most of its recent gains).

As noted earlier this week, the company is bringing 35 games (of which 7 are for PC and 28 are for mobile) to G-Star in Seoul later this month; that, plus games just released in Japan and a push into the Thai market, has the company bristling with confidence in 2017.

The western chunk of Nexon’s pie is still relatively small, but Nexon is touting the launches of Riders of Icarus and HIT as contributing to year-over-year growth in North America.

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Funcom’s Q2 2016 financials show revenue dip, debt repayment, new titles

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Funcom’s second quarter financials for 2016 rolled in over the weekend. Of note, revenues are down 36% compared to the same quarter last year “due to gradual and expected decrease in sales from the current Live Games,” the company says. But it’s also managed to cut operating costs over the same period and has repaid some of its debts (including that half a million dollar bridge loan from June) by issuing stock and continuing its corporate restructure.

“Due to the loan conversion and the private placement, total equity increased from USD -9,953k at the end of 1Q FY16 to USD 2,389k at the end of 2Q FY16. Cash position also improved from USD 1,014k at the end of 1Q FY16 to USD 5,100k at the end of 2Q FY16.”

There’s not too much new on the gaming front; work continues on Conan Exiles and yet another game with the IP that is still in “concept development.” Funcom also reiterates that its US branch is still working on another small The Secret World spinoff whose “main goal [is] to increase the competency of the North Carolina team in Unreal Engine 4.” The studio writes that “due to this risk and the experimental nature of the title, it is not expected to have a material impact on the business.”

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Funcom releases second quarter financials and announces The Park

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We could quote a lot of numbers from Funcom’s second quarter financial report, but let’s be honest here: They’re just confirming what we already know. There are three non-numerical takeaways from the report, the first being confirmation that LEGO Minifigures Online underperformed significantly and will have its investments reduced. Second, some of Funcom‘s existing investors are deferring the company’s debts in light of its current situation. Third, and most importantly, the company is shifting gear to developing faster experimental games with a more aggressive release schedule.

The first of those games, The Park, is slated for release this October and should look familiar to fans of The Secret World even without all of the teasing director Joel Bylos had done regarding the previously unannounced title. The game is a single-player spinoff horror game centered around an amusement park that features prominently in the MMO, so if you wanted to have a short and directed horror experience outside of the online space, you’ve got something to look forward to. Check out the trailer just below.

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Nexon Q2 2015 finances strong thanks to MapleStory 2 and mobile

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It’s another good quarter for free-to-play developer Nexon. The company posted its Q2 2015 financial report today, and while profits are slightly down from Q1, they’re still up 16% from the same time last year. During the quarter, Nexon brought in 42.7 billion yen (about $343.1M).

A fourth of that revenue was thanks to Nexon’s mobile titles, which the company says have been doing exceptionally well. “We are also pleased with the momentum we saw in mobile, particularly in native mobile games, which doubled in revenues year-over-year,” CEO Owen Mahoney said.

Nexon also credited titles such as Dungeon & Fighter, MapleStory 2, and DomiNations as contributing to the quarter’s success. It also helped that operating expenses and taxes were lower than expected for the period.

Source: Nexon press release

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CCP financials for 2014 continue their downward slide

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It’s become a cottage industry for EVE Online fans to try to figure out whether CCP Games is doing well or not. Gone are the days with regular crowing about subscriber numbers, and as with most companies, the focus is on publicizing the good rather than admitting what’s not going so well. A fan blog, however, legally obtained a copy of the most recent finanical report for the company and posted a lengthy and in-depth analysis of the company’s numbers through the end of 2014.

The short version is that the company reported significant losses, but analysis suggests that may have a great deal to do with writing off DUST 514 and World of Darkness assets. With some assumptions and estimates, the analysis looks solid for EVE Online itself despite the company’s 10% drop in revenue year-on-year and $15 million in negative equity. Take a look at the full analysis to check the numbers and see whether you agree with the estimates being made.

Source: marketsforISK; thanks to Hagu for the tip!

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Funcom financials trend downward, new CEO appointed

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While it could have been worse, Funcom’s Q1 2015 financials could have been a heck of a lot better, too. In yesterday’s financial report, the company announced that its revenues dropped $144,000 from the previous quarter, bringing in $2.77M since the start of the year. Its main money makers are still Age of Conan and The Secret World.

However, not all is doom and gloom in Funcom’s world. Operating costs are down significantly for the studio, and it just appointed a new CEO, Rui Casais, who took up the position on May 13th.

A big portion of the report was devoted to the upcoming business model shift to buy-to-play for LEGO Minifigures Online. Funcom admitted that “monetizing the game has proven challenging” but has hopes that the new model plus the game’s summer release on tablets will help its outlook significantly.

Source: Q1 2015 financial report. Thanks, Nordavind.

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Funcom’s financials improved in Q4 2014 but are down year-over-year

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So do you want the good news or the bad news when it comes to Funcom’s financials? The good news is that the studio saw a bump in revenue in the last quarter of 2014, with The Secret World being its strongest moneymaker. The bad news is that revenues were almost half of what they were a year ago, decreasing from $21.4M in 2013 to $12.6M in 2014 due to “the ageing of the live games.”

Funcom said that the studio’s monetization of LEGO Minifigures Online has taken longer than expected. The upside is that recent promotions have caused a steady player increase and the studio is preparing to roll out the game to additional platforms.

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The Daily Grind: Are you optimistic about WildStar’s future?

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I’m sure this won’t serve as a grand surprise to anyone reading this, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of WildStar ever since we saw NCsoft’s financials last week. While it’s all well and good to try and cast the news as a positive by pointing out that it’s nearing the range of City of Heroes in terms of revenue, it behooves us to remember that CoH was unceremoniously shut down. Considering the hostile takeover NCsoft is facing, I think it’s enough to start one seriously thinking about the future.

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