NCSoft, Will 'Blade & Soul 2' Drive Stock Price?

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] NCSoft has gathered 2 million pre-registrations in just one day for its new title, "Blade & Soul 2" (B&S2). As a result, the securities industry is raising its estimated revenue projections for B&S2.

On the 11th, NCSoft announced that the number of pre-registrations for B&S2 surpassed 2 million approximately 18 hours after the pre-registration began on the 9th. This is said to be the shortest record alongside the company's other game, Lineage 2M.

B&S2 is the official sequel to NCSoft's 2012 martial arts action MMORPG "Blade & Soul." This time, B&S2 plans to support cross-platform play across mobile, PC, cloud, and console.

The securities industry is highly optimistic about B&S2's potential success. Since B&S2 introduces numerous large-scale competitive content among users, such as war content and boss raids, revenue is expected to increase.

Jin-gu Kim, a researcher at KTB Investment & Securities, analyzed, "This applies the experience of Lineage, where large-scale competitive content among users translated into revenue, to B&S2," and added, "We are raising the initial domestic daily revenue forecast for B&S2 from 1.3 billion KRW to 3 billion KRW."

Researcher Kim also stated, "With console-level graphics, action, and an East Asian fantasy story combined, it is judged that B&S2 can sufficiently appeal to trendy Asian game users in Japan and Taiwan," adding, "Considering this, we estimate B&S2's average daily overseas revenue in Q1 2022 to be 1.5 billion KRW."

Besides B&S2, other mobile games are also expected to continue their growth trend. "Trickster M" surpassed 3 million pre-registrations within one month after starting pre-registration in October last year, and Lineage 2M, which began pre-registration last month in Japan and Taiwan, exceeded 1.2 million in just one week.

The reason large-scale pre-registrations are possible despite no special marketing expenses is attributed to the recognition of the intellectual property (IP) owned by NCSoft.

Kyung Choi, a researcher at Heungkuk Securities, said, "Interest in the console market is growing recently, and although NCSoft is preparing a console game called 'Project TL,' mobile will lead growth this year," and predicted, "NCSoft's strategy, leveraging its famous IP, is expected to succeed without major difficulties, and overseas revenue will also increase."