NCSoft has disclosed the business figures for their MMORPGs in Q1 2018. How did Guild Wars 2, Blade & Soul, and AION perform at the beginning of the year?
Guild Wars 2 is stabilizing again. In the last quarter, sales skyrocketed due to the expansion “Path of Fire”, significantly boosting the revenues of Guild Wars 2. These revenues have decreased again, but are at a significantly higher level than the previous year. Sales fell by 32% compared to the last quarter, but are up 66% compared to Q1 2017.
NCSoft invests in the future of Blade & Soul
Blade & Soul is getting a new engine. The PC MMORPG Blade and Soul is performing somewhat weaker, both compared to the last quarter and the previous year. However, Blade and Soul is overall so stable that NCSoft is providing the MMORPG an upgrade to Unreal Engine 4. New gathering activities and fishing are also planned. It seems that NCSoft continues to invest in the MMORPG.
Blade & Soul 2 has been postponed. However, there is trouble regarding the mobile MMORPG “Blade and Soul 2”. It was initially supposed to be released in 2018, but it does not meet the expectations of NCSoft and will therefore be postponed to 2019. There are talks of a redesign and a new team.
Patch 6.0 makes AION the winner
AION is the big winner. The older MMORPG AION (2008) is the winner in NCSoft’s financial report. It is the only game that has shown growth. Revenues increased by 48%. This is due to a changed monetization strategy. This concerns the Patch 6.0 for AION, which was released in January in Korea and apparently brought about a significant turnaround. Until then, AION in South Korea was a subscription game, with 6.0 shifting to free-to-play. The patch was also supposed to “bring back the glorious times” by reversing some controversial changes. It seems to have succeeded at least in terms of revenues.
Stable, calm quarter – future Mobile. In the second half of 2017, the tremendous success of the mobile MMORPG “Lineage M” led to fantastic figures for NCSoft. The noise around Lineage M has quieted this quarter, although it still generates more revenue than all five PC MMORPGs combined. Lineage 2 M is planned for 2019, which could have a similar impact. Overall, NCSoft is heavily investing in Mobile. There are several plans for the upcoming months and years: Aion Legion, AION Tempest, Blade & Soul 2, and Lineage 2 M are four mobile MMORPGs in the pipeline.
For PC fans, the most interesting might be Project TL.
