NCSoft’s business figures for Q2 2018 are here. They show that the three MMORPGs Aion, Blade & Soul, and Guild Wars 2 are all declining. While the hype around mobile in South Korea is somewhat fading, NCSoft plans to release three more games in 2019.
What are the figures? NCSoft, as a publicly traded company, releases its business figures every quarter. You can see the revenues generated by the games.
Here in the West, in the USA and Europe, NCSoft earns only a fraction of its income. Here, the PC MMORPGs Guild Wars 2, Blade & Soul, and Aion play a role.
The majority of revenue is generated by NCSoft in Korea with the “Lineage” franchise and its spin-offs.
PC MMORPGs are losing almost all:
- Aion: After a recent upward trend in AION following its switch to free-to-play in Korea, there was a significant decline in Q2, but it is still higher than in the quarters of 2017. Here in Europe, something is also expected soon with Patch 6.2 coming in autumn. It is interesting to note that Aion 2 is likely in the works.
- Blade & Soul: For Blade & Soul, things do not look so good, as it has clearly been in a downward trend over the last year. Not much has happened in recent months. Although they plan to switch to Unreal Engine 4, that will likely take some time.
- Guild Wars 2: Similarly bleak is the situation for Guild Wars 2. The boost from the “Path of Fire” expansion is slowly wearing off. Guild Wars 2 is still above the level from 2017, but it is declining. The only significant news from Guild Wars 2 recently was the layoff of 2 employees following an incident on Twitter.
Mobile MMORPGs are struggling
The Lineage boom is over: The most interesting thing that has happened at NCSoft in recent years was the mega-success of “Lineage M”, the mobile version of the classic “Lineage” in Q3 2017.
That has now “stabilized”, the shine seems to have worn off a bit and some players are returning to the traditional PC version of Lineage. However, mobile revenues are still huge. This is a loss at a high level – and the supply seems to already be on the way.
Of particular interest to PC fans is likely “Project TL”:
A year ago, it looked as if South Korea had been completely overrun by the mobile boom, however, the trend has now somewhat reversed.
Plan for 2019 – more mobile games
Mobiles are on the rise: For the first half of 2019, NCSoft announced the release of three “big titles”.
These are likely mobile spin-offs of Lineage 2, Blade & Soul, or Aion. Project TL may also be coming soon. We summarized in the last quarterly report what NCSoft currently has in the pipeline.
NCSoft has the luxury problem of bringing three games in the first half of 2019. Titles that are seen as weaker internally are to be delayed somewhat. This is to ensure that the three games do not interfere with each other.
For spin-offs of Aion and Blade & Soul, they are also planning worldwide releases. Here, NCSoft believes it has brands that can also work overseas, meaning here with us.
Of particular interest to PC fans is likely “Project TL”:
