[Click eStock] "Wemade, No Issues with New Game Release Schedule This Year"

Hi Investment & Securities analyzed on the 8th that there is no change in the existing new game release schedule for Wemade this year. The investment opinion 'Buy' and the target stock price of 72,000 KRW were maintained.

Wemade recorded sales of 118.4 billion KRW, an operating loss of about 70.8 billion KRW, and a net loss of about 189.6 billion KRW in the fourth quarter of last year. Yoon Ye-ji, a researcher at Hi Investment & Securities, explained, "The main reason for the earnings miss was the underperformance of 'Night Crow' results," adding, "Operating expenses also exceeded expectations; although labor costs decreased compared to the previous quarter due to natural attrition, commission fees and marketing expenses increased despite the sales decline."

Hi Investment & Securities expects no changes in Wemade's new game release schedule this year. Yoon said, "There is no change in the existing new game release schedule," and added, "The earliest is the global release of the P2E (Play-to-Earn) version of 'Night Crow' scheduled for March. In addition, we expect 'Fantastic4 Baseball' in Q1, the Chinese release of 'Mir4' in Q2, the domestic release of 'Legend of Mir' in Q3, and the Chinese release of 'MirM' in Q4."

He explained, "Assuming the successful launch of new titles, this year's sales are expected to increase by 78% year-on-year to 1.079 trillion KRW," and added, "'Mir4' has not yet received a game license, but the local publisher has been selected, and the publisher announcement is expected after the Korean Lunar New Year and Chinese Spring Festival holidays."

Researcher Yoon analyzed that the March release of Night Crow will be important. He said, "The blockbuster MMORPG Night Crow global version is scheduled for release in March," and added, "If the price of WEMIX remains at the current level, the initial concurrent users are expected to exceed those of Mir4."

He emphasized, "Based on the first year of release, the global version of Mir4's sales scale is 40% larger than the domestic version, and although MirM failed to succeed, the global version's sales are 17% higher than domestic sales," adding, "The estimated global sales of Night Crow are 331.7 billion KRW, which is 23% higher compared to domestic sales during the same period."