Webzen Reports Q3 Operating Profit of 17.4 Billion KRW, Up 6.6% YoY

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Webzen announced its third-quarter earnings for 2022 on the 4th.

Webzen's third-quarter revenue was approximately 59.5 billion KRW, down 10.3% compared to the same period last year. Operating profit and net income were 17.4 billion KRW and 18.8 billion KRW respectively, representing increases of 6.6% and 30.5% year-over-year.

In the third quarter, Webzen's overall revenue slightly declined due to a decrease in domestic sales, but the overseas business portion increased by more than 19%, including the Taiwan service of its self-developed mobile game 'R2M', partially offsetting the revenue decline.

‘R2M’ has been steadily generating significant revenue since its release in Taiwan at the end of July. The business share of the ‘R2’ intellectual property (IP) also exceeded 21%, diluting the reliance on the ‘MU’ IP (66%) business, thereby substantially alleviating the so-called ‘one-game risk’ pointed out by some, according to Webzen.

Webzen plans to focus on developing new self-developed titles scheduled for release next year, while accelerating publishing collaborations with partners to expand its business in the second half of this year and next year.

First, it aims to expand its overseas business with titles such as ‘Awaken Legends: IDLE RPG’, which will begin publishing through a soft launch. According to the contract with its partner, Webzen holds the publishing rights for Korea, the Americas, Europe, and East Asia. The company is currently finalizing the soft launch schedule with the developer.

‘Awaken Legends’ is the first title released among the games contracted by the sourcing-dedicated team ‘Unicorn TF’. After confirming the business schedule for this game, other games secured through sourcing and publishing contracts will be sequentially announced to the market. Webzen is also continuously seeking domestic and international partners to secure next-generation new businesses and publishing games.

New games directly developed by Webzen’s development subsidiaries include ‘Project M’ by Webzen BlueLock and ‘Project W’ by Webzen Nova.

‘Project M’ is a large-scale mobile MMORPG developed using Unreal Engine 5. ‘Project W’ by Webzen Nova is a mobile collection RPG genre game.

Additionally, Webzen’s core subsidiary, Webzen Redcore, is also preparing a new title using Unreal Engine 5. As a developer that has already produced hit titles, there is high internal and external interest and expectation for its next work.

Kim Tae-young, CEO of Webzen, stated, “Although the overall game industry is somewhat sluggish, our company plans to consistently proceed with self-developed game development for future growth, as well as publishing and startup investments. We will carefully review the remaining business situation in the second half of the year and establish stable management and business plans for next year and beyond.”