NCSoft's Q1 Financials: Aion Continues To Excel, But Mobile Sequel Not Expected Until Next Year

NCSoft has released its Q1 2020 financial results, and things are looking up for its PC games while looking down for mobile. Mobile revenue is down heavily from last year's Q1: 553 bKRW to 325 bKRW. NCSoft isn't worried, however, saying on the conference call that traffic numbers are still good in Lineage 2 and Lineage 2 M, and an anniversary update -- read: an opportunity for monetization -- will be due at the end of Q2 or early Q3.

On the other side of things, total PC game revenue was up 6% from Q4 2020, and 14% year-over-year. Aion is looking particularly good over the past two quarters, rising from 8.453 billion South Korean won (bKRW) in Q3 to 18.810 bKRW in Q4 and 23.386 bKRW in Q1. That's a 276% increase in six months, while the other PC games experienced only small upward or downward trends.

Highlights from the conference call include:

• Blade & Soul 2 is still on track for a first-half 2021 release in Korea. That's been slightly delayed due to having to work from home.
• NCSoft is targeting younger players with B&S 2, as it's found many of the first game's players are "in their 40s and 50s." Tests are even drawing in a number of players from Lineage games.
• In terms of a global launch, NCSoft will endeavor to make changes to appeal to a wider audience, whether that includes a change in business model or other factors. "I think that this is very different from the past, because we're not simply taking what we did in Korea, changing the language, and taking it overseas," a spokesperson said.
• Due to both COVID-related issues and the desire to space out releases, mobile game Aion 2 won't launch before the end of the year.
• NCSoft thinks it will take "two to three years" for the new consoles to achieve sufficient market penetration, which means that any prospective console game releases won't be coming from the company for a while.

You can check out the NCSoft financials on the company's investor relations page.