The SF-MMO WildStar appears in the financial report of NCSoft, and the numbers look bad. The fantasy MMORPG Guild Wars 2, on the other hand, remains relatively stable.
Quarterly, the Korean software giant NCSoft publishes numbers that reveal how the publisher’s games are performing. Now the figures for the fourth quarter of 2014 are available.
The company itself is doing great. It’s been a record quarter, except for the fourth quarter of 2012 when Guild Wars 2 was released, as reported. Guild Wars 2 remains stable in sales compared to the third quarter. There has been little change. However, compared to 2013, they continue to struggle.
The big problem child is WildStar. In the fourth quarter, revenues have further declined. They now stand at one-third compared to the previous quarter. And that did not look good either.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, WildStar only generated about 29% of what Guild Wars 2 brought in. And this, despite still being in the first year, which is usually the strongest for an MMO.
Due to the weaker quarter for WildStar, the West represents even less of NCSoft’s revenue than in the last quarter. It now accounts for just over 10%. With a new president at the helm, that could change soon. She focuses on North America and Europe and studied in the USA.
NCSoft continues to generate significant revenue with so-called “legacy games,” meaning relatively old titles. In Korea, Lineage 1 continues to achieve record numbers. Aion is also performing well. Blade & Soul showed improvement compared to the previous quarter, attributed to its launch in Taiwan, as NCSoft reports.
This is the current state of Guild Wars 2, WildStar, and Blade & Soul
WildStar has already been affected by austerity measures in the past. However, Carbine states that NCSoft still believes in the game’s success and is allowing the studio time to further develop and restructure the game. For 2015, the SF-MMO plans a restructuring: WildStar aims to be more accessible and open.
At Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet, the future looks somewhat rosier. In 2014, they remained stable throughout the year. In 2015, with Heart of Thorns, a new expansion is expected to give the game a boost.
Another MMO from NCSoft could soon be relevant for us in the West: In 2015, a Western release of Blade & Soul is expected. However, fans have been waiting for details on this for a long time. Apparently, NCSoft still lacks key employees for localization and distribution in the West.
