The Korean developer and publisher NCSoft has released the figures for Q4 2019. In this, you can see the revenues from the MMORPGs Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade and Soul for the calendar year 2019. And the three games perform poorly.
Where do the figures come from? The figures come from NCSoft itself. The Korean publisher publicly disclosed the revenues of their players for the months of October, November, and December 2019. Additionally, NCSoft provides an overview of the annual revenues of their games.
How did the quarter go for NCSoft? Overall, Q4 is a great success. NCSoft generated significantly more revenue than in the previous four quarters. However, this increase is mainly attributed to the domestic Korean market. Particularly in NA/EU, revenues have significantly declined.
Despite a strong fourth quarter, the year 2019 was weaker than the two previous years. Moreover, wage costs increased by 3% compared to the previous year, due to bonus payments for the release of Lineage 2M.
Western MMORPGs are struggling
How are the MMORPGs that are also played in the West doing? In Europe and North America, the NCSoft titles, especially the MMORPGs Guild Wars 2, Blade & Soul, and Aion, are regularly played.
All three are struggling in Q4 and over the entire year.
How did 2019 go for Guild Wars 2: Guild Wars 2 had by far the weakest quarter since its release. With revenues of approximately $9.6 million, it lies almost $3.4 million below the previous quarter. 2019 was overall not a good year for the MMORPG.
Besides the layoffs in February, there were multiple conflicts with the community, especially regarding the build templates. However, the first major update in 2020 and the new roadmap have somewhat improved the mood.
How did 2019 go for Blade & Soul: For Blade & Soul, it was also the weakest quarter and 2019 was the weakest year in the history of the game. We are still waiting for the highly anticipated engine update in the West.
Part 1 of it was released in Korea back in December. Otherwise, there were always some controversies in the MMORPG, including a ban wave after an exploit. The highlight of the year remained the release of the new class Archer in September.
The third title in the West is Aion and it also did not perform well. Revenues fell from $11.22 million to $6.91 million. A significant drop, although 2018 was more positive for Aion than expected.
In 2017, Aion also had quarters that were similarly weak as Q4 2019. For us in the West, 2019 saw the big update 7.0 with the new class specialization Colorist.
Lineage is back strong in 2019
How are the other titles from NCSoft performing? In 2019, especially the older games Lineage (1998) and Lineage 2 (2003) performed well. The rebound for Lineage was due to a shift from a subscription to a free-to-play model in May 2019. This shift came 21 years after release and was surprising. However, revenues increased significantly as a result.
NCSoft also made significant gains in the mobile sector. One reason was the release of Lineage 2M, which took place at the end of 2019. Thanks to a proprietary emulator, the mobile game can also be played on PC.
Revenues in the mobile sector are overall more than three times as high as the combined revenues of the five major PC MMORPGs.
Are new MMORPGs coming from NCSoft?
What new titles is NCSoft planning? At the end of 2018, it was reported that NCSoft was working on 4 new MMOs and MMORPGs for PC and PS4. They are supposed to be:
- Project TL
- Project A2, possibly a new Aion
- Project LLL, about which nothing is known so far
- a yet-to-be-announced project, which is likely developed by NC West
This is the current situation but it is difficult to say what will actually be implemented from these projects.
Only Project TL has recently gained attention again. New images were published in January and also a beta for the first half of 2020 was announced.
It is also now known that ArenaNet, the developers of Guild Wars 2, are working on a new title. It is supposed to be a 3rd-person console game developed in the Unreal Engine 4. It is possible that this is the unannounced project from NC West.
While NCSoft is currently being more reserved with new PC games, the also Korean developer Pearl Abyss, known for Black Desert, has announced 4 new MMOs:
