DS Investment & Securities evaluated on the 8th that Netmarble needs a reassessment of its publishing capabilities along with a blockbuster hit. It maintained a 'buy' investment opinion and a target price of 86,000 won. The closing price of Netmarble on the previous trading day was 60,800 won.
Choi Seung-ho, a researcher at DS Investment & Securities, noted, "Netmarble's hit ratio this year is 75% (3/4)," and stated, "It is time for a reassessment of Netmarble's publishing capabilities, beyond just game quality."
Researcher Choi estimated that the initial daily sales of Netmarble's Vampire, released on the 26th of last month, are around 2 billion won and evaluated that it is continuing its good performance. It has followed the traditional lineage-like methodology while demonstrating high publishing capabilities, such as in broadcaster promotions, achieving successive hits.
Researcher Choi added, "It shows positive signs of progress in most areas, including marketing strategy, expense, company awareness, game quality, and release management, compared to before."
However, despite the continuous excellent performance and game hits, Netmarble's value remains consistently undervalued. In this regard, Researcher Choi speculated, "It is presumed that the product life cycles of new games have not been long enough," and added, "Still, the high points are higher compared to the past, thus the absolute decline is decreasing. The decline of old works is well compensated by the release of new games."
Ultimately, to achieve a reassessment, Researcher Choi concluded that a blockbuster hit outside of genres like multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) and nurturing, which are cash cow genres, is necessary. He stated, "Netmarble has the most development personnel among domestic companies and the diversity of genres is the widest," adding, "Considering the development pipeline, the potential is sufficient."