NC improved its first-quarter results sharply this year on the back of strong performance by new titles. If the global launch of AION2 and the expansion of its mobile casual business proceed smoothly, NC said it expects to achieve more than 2.5 trillion won in revenue this year.
NC said on the 13th that first-quarter revenue on a consolidation basis was 557.4 billion won, up 55% from a year earlier. Operating profit was 113.3 billion won, up 2,070% in the same period, and net profit was 152.4 billion won, swinging to the black from a loss in the previous quarter.
Two recently launched titles drove the results. First-quarter revenue from AION2, launched in Nov. last year, was 136.8 billion won, and the accounting revenue from Lineage Classic, unveiled in Feb. this year, came to 83.5 billion won. Hong Won-jun, NC chief financial officer (CFO), said, "From the launch of Lineage Classic to May 11, cumulative revenue over 90 days was 122.4 billion won, far exceeding our initial expectations."
Thanks to this, PC game revenue reached 318.4 billion won, a record high for a quarter. Mobile game revenue was 182.8 billion won, down 3% from the previous quarter. However, the company said updates to Lineage M, Lineage 2M, and Lineage W and the effects of regional expansion kept performance on a steady track.
NC said it will ramp up its push into overseas markets. AION2, currently available in Korea and Taiwan, is slated for a global launch in the third quarter this year. The shooting games "Cinder City" and "Time Takers," as well as the subculture game "Breakers," have also entered global testing.
It is also pursuing expansion of the existing Lineage intellectual property (IP). On the 27th, it will launch "Lineage W" in Southeast Asia, and it is preparing to launch "Lineage M" and "Lineage 2M" in China, along with "AION Mobile" in China in partnership with Shengqu Games.
NC projected that its mobile casual business will become a new growth pillar starting in the second quarter. In Mar., NC acquired a 70% equity stake in German mobile game reward platform corporations JustPlay for 301.6 billion won. In Dec. last year, it purchased a 67% equity stake for 153.4 billion won in Indigo Group, the Singapore game publishing corporations and parent company of Vietnamese casual game developer LiHuhu.
JustPlay posted first-quarter revenue of 98.3 billion won and operating profit of 13 billion won this year, up 70% and 130% from a year earlier, respectively. Hong, the CFO, said, "Starting in the second quarter, as JustPlay's results begin to be consolidated, the scale of revenue in the mobile casual business will expand meaningfully in numerical terms." LiHuhu is targeting the launch of around 20 new titles annually and plans to concentrate marketing resources on one or two games per quarter to drive growth.
Park Byung-mu, NC co-CEO, said, "We are confident that operating profit will continue to grow both year over year and quarter over quarter this year," adding, "We are aiming for results far higher than the initially presented annual revenue of 2.5 trillion won."