NCSoft Has A Down Q3, As Pandemic Boost Expires And Blade & Soul 2 Fails To Inspire

NCSoft has disclosed is financials for Q3 2021, and the Korean publisher and developer is probably not too happy with the results. Overall sales declined for the fourth straight quarter, reaching their lowest mark since Q3 2019. There are a few extenuating circumstances at play -- mobile hit Lineage 2M launched in Q4 2019, and the pandemic boosted virtually all video game companies last year -- but there's likely some pressure on the company to reverse its downslide and to do it quickly.

Some relief could come in the form of Blade & Soul 2, which launched in Korea during the quarter for PC and mobile devices, though it's only listed in the mobile games section of the financial report -- and it was hardly a breakout hit, managing less than 1/6 the sales of the two Lineage mobile titles. Its predecessor's UE4 update arrived in September, near the end of the quarter, which led to a meager bump in its quarterly numbers.

PC games in general went through a second straight quarter with sales hovering around the 100 billion won mark, down from the 120 billion they had realized over the previous three quarters. Blade & Soul 2 on PC might help with that, as should the upcoming Guild Wars 2 expansion. Even with the expansion delayed, GW2 saw significant upward momentum, up 20% in revenue over the previous quarter and its highest mark since Q3 2018.

You can view NCSoft's financial data on its Investors Relations page.