NCSoft's Q2 2016 Financials: WildStar Rebounds, GW2 Tumbles
It's that time of year again, time for another financial statement from NCSoft. There's a little good and a little bad, but the overall picture of the company's health is improving.
Sales have held pretty steady for three quarters in a row now, but lower expenses in Q2 helped drive operating profit and net income up nicely, to their highest values in over a year. Sales in Korea were especially good, attributed to "all key IPs performing well, with particular strength from Lineage 1." Lineage in particular jumped up from 78,877 million Korean won in Q1 to 94,430 mKRW in Q2, its highest total since Q4 2014 and second-highest ever.
Sales in the US and EU dipped, however, by about 1/3, and that can probably be attributed in large part to Guild Wars 2. Its sales dropped nearly in half, from 30,557 mKRW to 15,894 mKRW -- its worst quarter ever. Discontent in the GW2 community was at an all-time high earlier this year, and it remains to be seen if the new content injection can stabilize this downward trend. Aion and Blade & Soul also endured slight dips.
In better news, WildStar is up! After dropping to an abysmally low 1,282 mKRW in Q1, it bounced back to 2,203 mKRW in Q2, June's Steam launch probably has a bit to do with that, but it's still a few ticks below the 2,668 mKRW the game had after going free-to-play. It'll be interesting to see if it can maintain that momentum going forward.
You can access the full financial report on the NCSoft Investor Relations page.
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Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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