'Rinjussi Departure' NC... Can They Reverse Their Performance?

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] As concerns rise over NCSoft's significantly weak performance in the first quarter of this year, attention is focused on whether new releases and overseas expansions will play a saving role.

According to securities information firm FnGuide on the 14th, NCSoft's first-quarter performance forecast for this year is expected to show sales of 563.5 billion KRW and operating profit of 151.3 billion KRW, representing decreases of 23% and 37%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

This poor performance is analyzed to have been greatly influenced by users' boycott movements against the company's main IPs (intellectual properties), Lineage M and Lineage 2M. Earlier, on January 27, NCSoft implemented an update to Lineage M's key monetization element, the 'Munyang' (Emblem), allowing completion with low spending. This led to backlash from users who had previously spent large amounts, and when NCSoft compensated with in-game currency instead of cash, the boycott escalated into protests including truck demonstrations.

According to big data platform company IGAWorks, last month, Lineage M's monthly active users (MAU) on Android recorded 187,822, which is about 25% less than February's 233,937.

However, the strong performance of new releases and the overseas-launched Lineage 2M raises expectations for future performance improvement. NCSoft announced the day before that its new mobile game, Pro Baseball H3, ranked first in revenue in the sports game category on Google Play. Pro Baseball H3 is NCSoft's baseball management game for baseball fans. On the 8th, it also ranked first in popularity among sports games on both major app markets (App Store and Google Play).

Lineage 2M, released in Taiwan and Japan on the 24th of last month, is also performing well. Based on Google Market revenue, it ranked first in Taiwan and placed in the top 10 in Japan.

In the securities industry, there are forecasts that performance will improve in the second quarter due to the impact of new releases. A securities industry official said, "Blade & Soul 2, scheduled for release in May, has already surpassed 4 million users, and interest from existing PC Blade & Soul users is increasing," adding, "With additional overseas services expected in the second half of the year, fundamental improvements are anticipated."