The financial figures from NCSoft come from Korea. They all look quite poor. WildStar, Aion, Guild Wars 2, and Blade and Soul have lost compared to the last quarter.
NCSoft’s numbers are weak this quarter, which is due to the fact that these are the figures from June, July, and September – and this was a “calm before the storm” phase.
- Since then, WildStar switched to a Free2Play model in late September ,
- Guild Wars 2 launched the “Heart of Thorns” expansion at the end of October,
- Aion plans a big content drop with 5.0 in November in Korea
- and Blade and Soul is set to become a big hit here in the West at the beginning of 2016.
But all of this will only happen in the autumn quarter of 2015 in October, November, December, and beyond. Therefore, none of this is reflected in the sobering summer numbers.
Will a strong autumn follow a weak summer?
They look like all games are currently performing weaker than last quarter and are mediocre to varying compared to the numbers from a year ago – only the royalties have increased compared to the spring quarter, as Blade and Soul is doing well in China.
However, Aion is currently making only about half of what it earned last summer. WildStar continued its worrying downward trend, as the numbers are in a critical area: In 3 months, it only earned 1.4 million euros. Six months ago, it was still at 4.4 million. A year ago, it was nearly 13 million euros.
Lineage, Blade and Soul, and Guild Wars 2 are weaker than in the last quarter, but stronger than a year ago around this time.
As a reason for these weak numbers, NCSoft cites a “lack of in-game item promotions”. They have flooded the cash shop less with special promotions and discounts than usual.
This fits our theory: It was indeed the calm before the storm. The next quarter, the autumn quarter, should look significantly better. Otherwise, despite the end of Nexon interference, they would likely have a problem.
By the way: In the long term, some experts and analysts believe that NCSoft’s future depends on the success of Lineage Eternal, with which they also want to truly establish themselves in the mobile market.
