Will NCSoft's Stock Rise Alongside Lineage W?

Lineage W Records Daily Average Revenue of 12 Billion KRW in the First Week After Launch

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] NCSoft's recently released new title, 'Lineage W,' is achieving the best performance since the company's founding. The market is paying attention to whether this will also influence the stock price's upward trend in the future.

On the 28th, KB Securities maintained its investment opinion on NCSoft as 'Buy' with a target price of 930,000 KRW. The closing price on the 26th was 695,000 KRW.

Lineage W is delivering top performance. Since its release on the 4th, Lineage W recorded an average daily revenue of 12 billion KRW during the first week. It is estimated that the revenue range is currently maintained around 8 to 10 billion KRW daily.

Researcher Lee Dong-ryun of KB Securities stated, "Even considering the initial revenue surge due to aggressive BJ promotions and marketing execution compared to the previous title, it is estimated that the average daily revenue in Q4 this year can reach around 8 billion KRW," and added, "If regional expansion is also reflected, next year's revenue is expected to be 1.3 trillion KRW, with an average daily revenue of 3.5 billion KRW."

NCSoft plans to introduce Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) and Play to Earn (P2E) within next year. NCSoft possesses industry-leading data in terms of economic systems and balance, so if NFT and P2E settle in the market, they are expected to serve as next-generation growth engines.

For Lineage W, it is predicted that the next release regions such as North America and Europe, as well as the follow-up project TL, will apply NFT and P2E models. Researcher Lee explained, "If Lineage W incorporates a P2E model, it could reduce the Play to Win (P2W) tendency and potentially achieve good results in Western markets where NCSoft has shown weaknesses," but he also noted, "A concern is that Project TL aims for simultaneous global service, but it is difficult to implement P2E under current domestic laws in Korea."