According to the NCSoft earnings report, the company experienced healthy earnings during the fourth quarter of 2012. Barring losses by Aion and Lineage II, the company maintained an 'in the black' report due to strong sales of Lineage, Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul.

Check out the earnings report here.

Source: Massively.com

Originally posted by SBFord

According to the NCSoft earnings report, the company experienced healthy earnings during the fourth quarter of 2012. Barring losses by Aion and Lineage II, the company maintained an 'in the red' report due to strong sales of Lineage, Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul.

Check out the earnings report here.

Source: Massively.com

 

Do you realise that "in the red" indicates losses and is generally considered a bad thing. That is why massively ended their article with this statement "NCsoft's net income was in the red for the quarter and its stock has slid since September, losing half of its value in the process."

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by SBFord

According to the NCSoft earnings report, the company experienced healthy earnings during the fourth quarter of 2012. Barring losses by Aion and Lineage II, the company maintained an 'in the red' report due to strong sales of Lineage, Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul.

Check out the earnings report here.

Source: Massively.com 

Do you realise that "in the red" indicates losses and is generally considered a bad thing. That is why massively ended their article with this statement "NCsoft's net income was in the red for the quarter and its stock has slid since September, losing half of its value in the process."

I'd assumed that was a typo, and that she'd meant "in the black" but now, I'm confused.  Why would NCSoft be in the red?  Would that be in spite of those strong sales, or were those sales not strong enough, or what?

Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by SBFord

According to the NCSoft earnings report, the company experienced healthy earnings during the fourth quarter of 2012. Barring losses by Aion and Lineage II, the company maintained an 'in the red' report due to strong sales of Lineage, Guild Wars 2, and Blade & Soul.

Check out the earnings report here.

Source: Massively.com 

Do you realise that "in the red" indicates losses and is generally considered a bad thing. That is why massively ended their article with this statement "NCsoft's net income was in the red for the quarter and its stock has slid since September, losing half of its value in the process."

 

I'd assumed that was a typo, and that she'd meant "in the black" but now, I'm confused.  Why would NCSoft be in the red?  Would that be in spite of those strong sales, or were those sales not strong enough, or what?

Because they spent more money than they earned. Building infrastructure to support two growing MMO's is expensive, plus the advertising blitz for GW2, plus who knows what else.

Originally posted by Jakdstripper
how the hell does Korea (assuming south Korea), a nation of 50 mil people, beat Europe + N America's in sales? :O....last i checked Koreans' are not rich....how the heck do they spend that kind of money on mmos? what does the average Korean family do once they get a paycheck ? "buy food, pimp out my GW2 character, and then pay rent if there is anything left..."?

 

 

 

are you serious dude?

Originally posted by Jakdstripper
how the hell does Korea (assuming south Korea), a nation of 50 mil people, beat Europe + N America's in sales? :O....last i checked Koreans' are not rich....how the heck do they spend that kind of money on mmos? what does the average Korean family do once they get a paycheck ? "buy food, pimp out my GW2 character, and then pay rent if there is anything left..."?

 Ignorance at it's finest, Korea used to be a poor nation but they boomed the last few decades and have become very wealthy and online gaming is huge in Korea, definitely bigger than any other country. Whereas here it's still taboo and nerdy to play online games, it's basically the norm/cool there. Internet cafes are all over south korea basically allowing people to have lan parties with friends while out for a coffee, gaming is huge and Korea is starting to become the powerhouse for developing games too.

Originally posted by Etherignis
Wow i thought they were doing good. NcSoft last hope will be BnS that will probably bail them out.

If you look at their report, there's nothing really to bail out. There is a signficant amount of increase in spending from Q3 to Q4. You have to spend money to make money. Their overall revenue is trending upwards, hence the titles of the thread and the Massively article.

Originally posted by Jakdstripper
how the hell does Korea (assuming south Korea), a nation of 50 mil people, beat Europe + N America's in sales? :O....last i checked Koreans' are not rich....how the heck do they spend that kind of money on mmos? what does the average Korean family do once they get a paycheck ? "buy food, pimp out my GW2 character, and then pay rent if there is anything left..."?

 

 

In the US, our teens waste money on A&B clothes, sports jerseys and smartphones.  In Korea, gaming is the biggest sport and the in-thing.

Unless GW2 box sales keep up the pace OR cash shop sales go up even further, they might not get a return on their investement.

I'm guessing their exceedingly high expenses were due to producing / marketing GW2. They might not be.

Go Lineage GO! ?(????)?

Oh wait, wrong party :)

Originally posted by Talonsin

Originally posted by Jakdstripper
how the hell does Korea (assuming south Korea), a nation of 50 mil people, beat Europe + N America's in sales? :O....last i checked Koreans' are not rich....how the heck do they spend that kind of money on mmos? what does the average Korean family do once they get a paycheck ? "buy food, pimp out my GW2 character, and then pay rent if there is anything left..."?

 

 

In the US, our teens waste money on A&B clothes, sports jerseys and smartphones.  In Korea, gaming is the biggest sport and the in-thing.

The easier explanation is that NCsoft is a Korean company and their portfolio of games primarily leans on the Korean market. The Guild Wars series is their primary foray into the western market.  Right now Guild Wars 2 alone makes up 45% of their game sales which is what the their European and North American sales add up to.

Originally posted by Asamof
amazing how many people still play lineage 1

It is.  The game really was that damn good in my opinion.  The old Lineage is more popular than most of the older western games combined.  It's still estimated to have around 900 - 1M+ subscribers (that was a true subscription model too).

I think NC might be hurting because BnS seems to be underperforming and they had been banking on that.  Aion lost a lot of users and BnS isn't gaining more than Aion and L2 are bleeding.  If you're Korean and can play BnS, Tera, or Lineage, among other popular Asian games, why would you stick to Aion and L2 doesn't have the same staying power as Lin1.

What I wonder is, if NC were to be bought out entirely (they're not going to just fail), does ANet have their own buyout option?  I've heard rumors, but never confirmed, that ANet has some loopholes and options that let them control their own destiny if it came to something like that.

" NCsoft's net income was in the red for the quarter and its stock has slid since September, losing half of its value in the process."

Why did MMORPG leave that out from the massively article?

So

around $40M in the 3Q12 + around $110M in 4Q12 = $150M

for GW2.

At an average of $30 a box that is 5 millions, so it seems a nice stream of revenue from gems.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

" NCsoft's net income was in the red for the quarter and [u]its stock has slid since September, losing half of its value in the process[/u]."

Why did MMORPG leave that out from the massively article?

One has to wonder what the hell is going on with NCSoft right now.  Both Lineage and Guild Wars 2 are extremely profitible.  BnS looks like it could be underperforming, but still very profitible.  Aion and L2 are shrinking, but is that really the cause?  I have a hard time believing it's GW2 marketing.  That would seemingly be idiotic to go that far in the red for marketing or to let marketing account for that big of a revenue hit.  There has to be something else going on.