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SEOUL, Aug. 9 (Yonhap) — NCSOFT Corp., a South Korean online and mobile game developer, reported Wednesday that its second-quarter net profit dropped by nearly 75 percent from the same period a year prior due to weak sales of its flagship mobile titles.
According to a regulatory filing, the company posted a net income of 30.5 billion won (US$23.2 million) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period, a decrease of 74.3 percent from 118.7 billion won in the same period the year before.
Its operating income also fell 71.3 percent year-over-year to 35.3 billion won and sales declined 30 percent to 440.2 billion won.
The earnings were lower than market expectations. According to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency, analysts had an average estimate of net profit of 38.2 billion won.
Its mobile business earned 296.9 billion won in sales for the three-month period through June, a plunge from the previous year’s 475.2 billion won.
Quarterly revenue from PC games amounted to 88.2 billion won, slightly down from 95.9 billion won a year ago.
In particular, NCSOFT’s major game title, Lineage W (2021), a multiplayer online role-playing game, posted 102.8 billion won in sales, a decrease of 54 percent from a year earlier.
Sales of the steady-selling mobile version, Lineage M (2017), declined 9.5 percent year-over-year to 127.8 billion won.
By market, sales in South Korea reached 285.1 billion won, accounting for 64.8 percent of the company’s overall sales, followed by Asia with 87.4 billion won, and North America and Europe combined with 31.4 billion won.
This undated file photo, provided by NCSOFT Corp., a major South Korean online and mobile game developer, shows its headquarters, located south of Seoul. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
brk@yna.co.kr
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