NCSoft Announces 2006 2nd Quarter Financials

NCsoft Announces 2006 Second Quarter Financial Results; Quarterly Sales of KRW 85.5 Billion, Operating Income of KRW 1.7 Billion and Pre-Tax Income of KRW 4 Billion

SEOUL, South Korea --(Business Wire)-- Aug. 3, 2006 -- NCsoft(R) Corporation (KSE:036570.KS):

Note: 1USD = 965 Korean Won (KRW)

NCsoft(R) Corporation (KSE:036570.KS), the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, today reported second quarter 2006 sales of KRW (Korean Won) 85.5 billion (US$88.6 million), operating income of KRW 1.7 billion (US$1.8 million), pre-tax income of KRW 4 billion (US$ 4.1 million) and net loss of KRW 200 million (US$207,000). Compared to the previous quarter, sales increased 10% while operating and pre-tax income declined 81% and 61% respectively. Sales for Q2 increased by 7% from the same period last year while operating and pre-tax income declined 90% and 79% respectively year to year.

Sales were boosted by the successful launch of Guild Wars Factions(TM), which added to the already stable sales base formed by Lineage(R) and Lineage II. In Q2, the Guild Wars(R) franchise surpassed two million account activations worldwide and became the number one game in both North America and Europe. However, operating income saw a downturn due to the one time write-off (approximately KRW 12.6 billion or US$13.1 million) of costs related to sluggish sales of Auto Assault(R), released in North America and Europe during the second quarter. Excluding this write-off, both operating income and pre-tax income grew by 64% from the previous quarter while operating income and pre-tax income declined by 17% and 11% respectively from the previous year.

By region, domestic sales amounted to KRW 52.9 billion (US$54.8 million), a decline of 4% from the previous quarter and 3% from the previous year. Sales in North America and Europe recorded strong growth of 39% and 144% to KRW 15.7 billion (US$16.3 million) and KRW 9.3 billion (US$9.6 million), lifted by the successful introduction of Guild Wars Factions. On a year to year comparison, sales in North America grew by 10% and in Europe grew by 192%. Steady sales of the Lineage series and Guild Wars led to sales of KRW 7.5 billion (US$7.8 million) in Japan, similar to the first quarter and the same period one year ago. The percentage breakdown of regional sales show almost half of all sales occurring overseas: Korea with 55% of total sales, North America with 18%, Europe with 11%, Japan with 9% and royalties with 7%.

By game, Lineage and Lineage II posted sales of KRW 28.5 billion (US$29.5 million) and KRW 28.4 billion (US$29.4 million), down 5% and 3% respectively from the previous quarter and unchanged year to year. Sales of City of Heroes(R)/City of Villains(R) were down quarter to quarter by 15% to KRW 5.5 billion (US$5.7 million) and down 5% year to year. Sales of Guild Wars showed a significant increase quarter to quarter, growing by 160% to KRW 16.4 billion (US$17 million) while growing 71% year over year. The strong numbers were spurred by the successful April launch of Guild Wars Factions in North America and Europe.

NCsoft is preparing a simultaneous global launch of the third campaign in the Guild Wars franchise, Guild Wars Nightfall(TM), during the latter half of this year. Closed beta testing for the hugely anticipated MMORPG project Aion(TM) is also expected within the year.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/08/03/1770995.htm

looks like GW rocks... tell me something i don't know ^_^

ncsoft really EDIT up with auto assault. its literally guild wars (twisted metal style) with a monthly fee. guess they wanted to test the waters to see if people would pay for guild wars.

the Aion thing looks promising. screenshots show its pretty much guild wars with the wow UI. can't go wrong with that.

ncsoft should cash in as much as they can with guild wars, because this game is going to steal the no-monthly fee crowd.

good for them
GW helped NCsoft's poor sales of another game

Umm....Nice results for this quarter for NCSoft, hope they will make more improvements to us, customers, continue supporting this great game company. And, i agree, Auto Assault wasn't really popular err...

~Maedhros

Wow... that is sexy!

very sexy.. I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Interesting...Guild Wars FTW I guess.

Why? looks pretty lame to me.

Yes, lame as in looks bloody good.

Guns and magic... No thanks.

looks like a super retarded buffy the vampire slayer mock up.

Doesn't look that appealing to me either, but if it has the same commercial system as GW, surely deserves a test.

Isn't Hellgate: London an offline RPG with some slap-on multiplayer features ála Diablo, so it really isn't competing in the same area with GW and WoW

It looks like Guild Wars is quickly becoming their most important title. Lineage is getting old, sales of CoH and CoV are dropping and Auto-Assault flopped so I think GW is probably getting a lot of love in NCSoft right now.

p.s. Did anyone spot the employment ad on the frontpage of that hellgate london site:

I would help city heros too however they are not a free game like gw. there fore they eill profit from my ideas!

Hellgate London looks totally awesome, if you want a spiritual sequel to Diablo 2 (which I do!). I think it's a major draw for people who like to play GuildWars PvE, not so much for those into PvP.

[QUOTE=Symbol]Hellgate London looks totally awesome, if you want a spiritual sequel to Diablo 2 (which I do!). QUOTE]

I completly agree. Hellgate london looks exactly what D3 should be...though i wouldnt mind a bliz version

People said the same thing about Oblivion - It's going to steal GW's players. I guess they all came back rather quickly?