The business figures of NCSoft for the 4th quarter of 2015 are here. Guild Wars 2 has made significant gains thanks to the expansion Heart of Thorns. WildStar, on the other hand, has hardly done so.
The business figures of the MMO giant NCSoft for the 4th quarter of 2015 are here. During this period, the expansion “Heart of Thorns” of Guild Wars 2 was released, and it nearly doubled the revenues in the 4th quarter compared to the previous year. In 2014, revenues were 14.2 million Euros in the fourth quarter; in 2015, it was 27.5 million. According to NCSoft, Guild Wars 2 has solidified its position as one of the major revenue drivers, and this is due to the sale of an expansion pack that will help stabilize in-game purchases.
For the struggling MMO WildStar, the switch to Free2Play did not bring the hoped-for turnaround. Although there was an increase in revenue to nearly 2 million euros in the 4th quarter compared to the third quarter, this is significantly worse than what was earned in the 4th quarter of 2014. Overall, the numbers fall significantly behind the other NCSoft titles. It makes 7 times less revenue than NCSoft’s second smallest title, Aion.
No specific comments on WildStar and Aion are found in the report.
NCSoft fully focuses on MMORPGs on PC, but will likely soon expand its offerings
The classic games from NCSoft that are successful in Asia, such as Lineage (1998), Lineage II (2003), and Aion (2008), continue to be solid sources of profit for the Asian giant. An upward trend is shown by Blade and Soul (2012), which is now also available here in Europe and is performing well.
For NCSoft, the overall figures are positive: The franchises they have have developed well and shown record years. The presented revenue generators are all MMORPGs and PC titles. In the future, they are likely to be unfaithful to this combination.
Because the future seems to lie more in the mobile market for NCSoft, where they want to land with titles like Lineage Eternal. They have opened a mobile studio in the USA. The next major releases from NCSoft are to include Lineage Eternal, as well as the PvE/PvP MOBA Master X Master, which has already been announced for the West release.
