NCsoft sales rise due to GWEN, but income slips

Originally Posted by Article, for you lazy people

Today, NCsoft announced its third-quarter results, and while sales were up 5 percent quarter over quarter to $88.3 million, its net income for the quarter fell 5 percent quarter over quarter to $11.1 million, down a substantial 21 percent year over year.

Supported heavily by its home base, 55 percent of NCsoft's sales occurred in Korea. Breaking down the remaining 45 percent, NCsoft accrued $15.1 million from North America, $9 million from Europe, $8.6 million in Japan, and $2.8 million in Taiwan. The publisher also received $4.8 million in royalty income.

NCsoft noted sales were up 81 percent in Europe, which it attributed to its biggest new release for the quarter, Guild Wars: Eye of the North. In all, total sales of ArenaNet's massively multiplayer online game Guild Wars were up 57 percent on the release of Eye of the North, garnering $14.4 million in sales. However, its Lineage franchise remained the primary breadwinner of the quarter, logging $26.2 million in revenue for the original game and $35.8 million for its successor, Lineage 2. City of Heroes and City of Villains combined for $6.3 million in sales.

NCsoft expects sales to continue to rise in the fourth quarter, riding the roll out of Richard Gariott's Tabula Rasa. Commenting on the company's performance and future outlook, NCsoft CFO JaeHo Lee said, "During the third quarter, sales in North America and Europe rose with the successful launch of the Guild Wars' expansion pack. We expect to see an increase in fourth quarter sales with the newly launched Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa. Aion is in a closed beta testing process, and user responses are very positive."

Following its deal to develop games for the PlayStation 3 in July, NCsoft has undergone a significant Western expansion in recent months. After receiving a hefty grant from the British government, the publisher revealed it would be nearly doubling its operations in Brighton, England. In October, NCsoft officially unveiled Orange County, California-based Carbine Studios, which is at work on an unannounced game. Yesterday, the publisher announced it had acquired Cryptic Studios' stake in the City of Heroes and City of Villains franchises, and that it would continue development of the two games at its newly formed NorCal Studios in Mountain View, California.

Originally Posted by BohemianKeith

Yeah and how many of those sold EOTN packages are actually players and not mules for bot accounts, farmers, etc.

Originally Posted by Bo Azum

Not everyone bought Eye of the North, but still play. Conclusion fails.

Originally Posted by draxynnic

The conclusion is accurate: it places a bottom limit on the number of people who've played the game since the release of EOTN (I'm willing to bet someone who buys EOTN has logged in to GW at least once since release).

Originally Posted by draxynnic

Also, I concur with the suspicion Tabula Rasa is going to fail... and if it does, it'll likely be succeeding at the expense of something else. The problem with NCSoft putting out so many MMORPGs - especially subscription MMORPGs - is not only that it's competing with the likes of WoW and LOTRO, it's competing with itself.

Originally Posted by Bo Azum

Not everyone bought Eye of the North, but still play. Conclusion fails.

Originally Posted by Corwin_Andros

Also have to take note of the fact that NC Soft (with the exception of the online stores) doesn't sell directly to the public. They certainly aren't selling to the retailers at $40 a pop. Not sure what that amount is offhand either. Perhaps someone in the retail market could enlighten us on what they typically pay for the games they sell and we could get a better estimate of how many copies of GW:EN were sold.

Originally Posted by Zinger314

What I also find interesting is that Lineage I and II combined generated nearly four times the sales in that quarter than sales than Guild Wars.

Originally Posted by Zinger314

...
What I also find interesting is that Lineage I and II combined generated nearly four times the sales in that quarter than sales than Guild Wars...

Originally Posted by draxynnic

The conclusion is accurate: it places a bottom limit on the number of people who've played the game since the release of EOTN (I'm willing to bet someone who buys EOTN has logged in to GW at least once since release).

Originally Posted by Bryant Again

Interesting little article, nonetheless. 350k GW players? I imagined at least a little under a million. Wow.

Originally Posted by AznDoDo

The Lineage and GW series are definately by far NCSoft's big weapons in term of income. CoH/CoV and the now dead Auto Assault, are much far behind those two series.

Originally Posted by Zinger314

Of course, if Tabula Rasa fails (the initial reports I've heard about it weren't great), then NCSoft, and consequently GW2, will be in a pickle.

Originally Posted by cosyfiep

wasnt it more expensive than $40 in euros? (or other non US currencies?).....

Originally Posted by Buster

NCSoft releases too many mmo games and doesn't give a game a chance to develope into major success. Lineage,Lineage 2, COV,COH,Tabula Rasa,Dungeon Runners and not to mention AION coming out soon. So where does this leave GW2 room to get success ? It doesn't. Obviously they feel quantity is better than quality which will eventually hurt the success of Anet unfortunately.

Originally Posted by Unkillable Cat

For those that asked about markups, not sure how much help this is, but for the majority of independant (none chain store) retail, the base markup is 120% of cost where a predetermined price isnt marked, it sounds steep, but it costs a lot to keep a shop open. I think the highest mark up I currently have is 241% but that is purely to prevent inverse snobbery (thats too cheap, there must be somthing wrong with it)