3N Stagnated Last Year, Aiming for a Rebound with New Mobile Releases This Year

Last Year's Box Office Hits 'Lineage2M' and 'V4' Go Global
Netmarble's Delayed New Releases Also Launching in First Half

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Last year, the 3N (Nexon, Netmarble, NCSoft) had to remain stagnant without any significant external growth. This was because each company's major anticipated titles were released at the end of the year or their launch dates were postponed to this year. This year, they are expected to pursue both external growth and profitability improvement by releasing new mobile titles starting from the first half of the year.

According to the gaming industry on the 15th, Nexon, which succeeded in the hit of 'V4' at the end of last year, is challenging to gain popularity globally this year as well. Nexon will begin pre-registration for V4 targeting users in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau from the 20th. On the 13th, Nexon's Taiwan branch released the V4 teaser video for the first time. Since its launch, V4 has maintained a top position in mobile game revenue rankings and has established itself as Nexon's new growth engine. V4 led Nexon's mobile game revenue growth in the fourth quarter of last year. Due to the effect of a new update applied on the 11th, it rose to 3rd place in the Google Play revenue rankings the day before. Along with this, Nexon is aiming for a second heyday by launching 'Dungeon & Fighter (DNF) Mobile,' based on the flagship PC game 'Dungeon & Fighter (DNF)' intellectual property (IP), in China in the first half of this year. They are also preparing for the global launch of 'KartRider: Drift.' Nexon recorded sales of 2.684 trillion KRW (248.542 billion JPY) last year, showing similar performance to the previous year.

In the case of Netmarble, last year's sales increased by 7.6% from the previous year to 2.1755 trillion KRW, while operating profit decreased by 16.5% to 201.7 billion KRW. It is evaluated that the reflection of performance was insufficient because the launch dates of anticipated titles planned for last year were postponed to this year. As the delayed anticipated titles are being released one after another from the first half of this year, expectations for performance improvement are growing. 'A3: Still Alive,' a new fusion genre mobile title that Chairman Bang Jun-hyuk confidently predicted would become a trend, is scheduled to be released in March, and 'Seven Knights 2,' 'Seven Knights Revolution,' and 'The Second Country' are also in the final stages of release preparation. 'The Seven Deadly Sins: GRAND CROSS' will be released in over 170 countries worldwide on the 3rd of next month. Global pre-registrations have already surpassed 1 million. It was first released in Korea and Japan in June last year and played a 'hero' role for Netmarble by simultaneously achieving first place in sales on the Apple App Store in both countries within 10 days of release.

NCSoft is challenging to enter the '2 trillion club' this year with the full reflection of the revenue effect of 'Lineage 2M.' NCSoft's sales last year were similar to the previous year at 1.7012 trillion KRW. It has remained in the 1.7 trillion KRW range for three consecutive years since 2017. Although Lineage 2M, released on November 27 last year, was a huge hit, the revenue effect was only reflected in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter achieved an 'earnings surprise.' Fourth-quarter sales increased by 34% and operating profit by 25% compared to the same period last year. This year, the revenue effect of Lineage 2M is expected to be reflected in all quarters. Since achieving first place in Google Play revenue rankings on December 1 last year, Lineage 2M has maintained the top spot for 11 consecutive weeks. Since the beginning of this year, the daily sales of Lineage 2M and Lineage M have remained at a high level, and a global launch of Lineage 2M is also planned. Additionally, new mobile titles based on their own IPs such as 'Aion 2' and 'Blade & Soul 2' are expected to be released.