2015 – MMO Fallout

NCSoft Posts Q4 Report: Wildstar Revenues Climb

NCSoft has posted their fourth quarter reports for 2015, and the results are a general mixture of the good and the bad. As you can see from the chart above, while figures were pretty solid across the board over the third quarter, revenue and profit dropped notably over the same period last year. NCSoft pits the majority of the loss on overseas royalties, but that overall the company is growing in profit thanks to a balanced growth from overall IPs.

On the games front, every single title in NCSoft’s library saw growth in the last quarter, including Wildstar. Lineage and Lineage 2, as well as Blade & Soul, grew thanks to content updates and strong in-game item promotions. Guild Wars 2 drove in plenty of new revenue thanks to the sale of Heart of Thorns.

Thank you to NCSoft for plotting out each game on an individual basis, it saves me a lot of time. As you can see from the chart above, while Wildstar’s income grew in the first quarter of free to play, it didn’t grow all that much. Revenue is still far down from where it was when the game launched, and it brought in only $2.23 million USD in its initial free to play rush.

At this point in the timeline, it looks like the upcoming China launch may be Wildstars best, and only, bet at salvation. Assuming NCSoft is willing to shoulder the title to that milestone, we’ll likely be hearing in 2017 about whether or not this title goes on the chopping block. As for Guild Wars, it looks like the Heart of Thorns quarter brought in a bump of $14 million. According to the earnings call itself, while sales were good for Heart of Thorns, they did fall below expectations. This lines up with earlier predictions of Daewoo Securities that Heart of Thorns would sell less than expected.

The first quarter earnings for NCSoft won’t be out for another few months, but they will have some very important information going forward: How has Blade & Soul fared with its western launch? How will Wildstar hold up after its free to play transition?

NCSoft Q3 2015 Drops Across The Board

NCSoft has released their third quarter financial reports and the results are pretty much negative across the board. Sales were down 8% under the same time last year, while profits fell nearly forty percent and net income dropped sixty percent across the same period. NCSoft has pointed to a drop in in-game promotional items for Lineage 1 and Aion as the culprit behind a majority of the drop in sales in Korea, although every game in their library saw a loss in sales over the second quarter.

The only game that seemed to be doing better in the third quarter is Blade & Soul, whose continued success in China brought in increased royalties. Blade & Soul’s sales in China are not reflected in the game’s bar on the chart above. The news also does not take into account the shift of Wildstar to free to play and the launch of Guild Wars 2’s expansion Heart of Thorns. Wildstar’s earnings for the third quarter dropped to $1.5 million, while Lineage 1 still makes up just under half of the total game sales.

(Source: NCSoft)

Despite Claims of Rampant Piracy, PC Accounts For 25% Of Ubisoft Sales

Ubisoft has released their first quarter sales figures for the 2015-2016 fiscal year with results that are better than expected. While the company had forecast earnings of €80 million, the company actually pulled in €96.6 million. Sales have been strong thanks to the performance of Assassin’s Creed as well as continued sales of Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and The Crew. As far as platforms go, digital revenues more than doubled from 23% to 56% of total sales over last year.

Sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2015-16 came to €96,6 million, down 73.2% (75.6% at constant exchange rates) compared to €360.1 million for first-quarter 2014-15 which saw the release of Watch_Dogs®.

Geographically speaking, Europe and North America still hold the majority of sales while the ‘rest of the world’ has grown from 12% last year to 20% of market share this year. On platforms, the Playstation 4 is in a clear lead over the Xbox One (27% compared to 11%), with the latter bringing in as many sales as the old generation of consoles (360 and PS3, 11% each) while the Wii and WiiU combined only accounted for 3%.

The PC, on the other hand, has seen a major growth in revenue share, from 14% last year to 23% this year, giving it more than twice the sales of the Xbox One. The results are even more impressive if you believe Ubisoft’s estimation from 2012 that the PC has a 95% piracy rate.

“On PC it’s only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it’s only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It’s around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.”

Second quarter releases by Ubisoft include Might & Magic Heroes VII, Rabbids Appisodes, and Toy Soldiers War Chest.

(Source: PC Gamer)

Star Vault Posts Higher Q1 Earnings

Star Vault has released their first quarter sales for 2015, and the results are rather positive. While sales are down from where they were last year, net sales increased over the fourth quarter to $68 thousand. Likewise, Star Vault’s net loss fell substantially from over $100 thousand in Q4 to $61 thousand this quarter.

According to Star Vault’s report, the number of subscribers remained about the same over last quarter.

CEO Henrik Nystrom’s note:

We have recruited a further enhancement to our team, in the form of an experienced programmer with great interest in game development. This gives us the resources for the Steam release. Our new additions will work in several areas of development in Mortal Online – it’s great with fresh eyes coming from outside that can give feedback on what areas can be improved. We also have an additional encoder remotely in the US who now helps us with GUI and flash programming.

(Source: Aktie Torget)

Disclosure: Star Vault’s finances are published on the Aktie Torget stock exchange in Swedish, linked above, and translated using Google’s automatic tools. Figures shown above are based off of the SEK to USD conversion rates as of the day of their publishing. This is for informational purposes and is not meant to advise investment.)

(Editor’s note: Henrik Nystrom’s note only includes the last of three paragraphs. The first two were removed for brevity and poor translation, and cover outdated information on the Sarducca update)

Funcom Reports Lower Revenues In First Quarter

Funcom has released their first quarter finances for 2015, and the results are a bit of a mixed bag. Revenue fell over the first quarter from the same time last year, down from $3.8 million in 2014 to $2.7 million. Despite this drop, Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization came out higher, $487 thousand compared to $451 thousand. In line with revenue falling, Funcom was also able to cut operating costs down to $2.2 million, $1.4 million down from the same point nearly a year ago.

Over on the operations side, Funcom’s bread and butter continues to be its three profitable MMOs (The Secret World, Age of Conan, and Anarchy Online). Lego Minifigures Online is set to launch on tablets this summer, however the game will be undergoing a business transition to buy to play instead of its original free to play. In the report, Funcom admits to overestimating the buying power of its target audience, and has committed to making changes to improve on player satisfaction.

(Source: Funcom)

RuneScape Details 2015 Manifesto

Jagex has released the 2015 manifesto for RuneScape, detailing some of the big updates coming this year.

The list of updates includes a new cooperative world event, skill updates, world bosses, quests, and more.

We’re planning for one update per month to be grabbed from RuneLabs, although you won’t start seeing the fruits of that labour until the Summer. That isn’t even counting the many polls we’ll be releasing on non-RuneLabs updates.

For Old School, 2015 is set to bring in plenty of content, pending approval via player polling. Content currently planned includes trading post updates, achievement diaries, resizable mode, the new continent Zeah, and other updates.

January will see the launch of boss pets, drop table reworks, the return of Hati and Skoll, ports, and RuneLabs, as well as new cash shop items.

(Source: RuneScape)
(Source: Old School)

Black Desert Coming West In 2015

It isn’t so often that you hear about a release date being pushed up, but here it is. Black Desert, a rather anticipated MMO, will be hitting digital shelves in North America and Europe beginning in 2015. The western publisher will be Daum, generally a Korean publisher, who cited an inability to find a suitable western publisher as their reason for changing course.

The reason why Daum is bringing the game to Europe and North America prematurely is probably because of the increased hype and positive feedback from the western community. Daum is actually a Korean publisher, but they decided to expand to the west because they couldn’t find a suitable publisher in EU/NA for Black Desert.

Check back in 2015 for more information.

(Source: Black Desert)

MMOrning Shots: Heavensward Bound

Today’s MMOrning Shot comes to us from Final Fantasy XIV, showcasing the upcoming expansion Heavensward. Set for release in Spring 2015, Heavensward introduces a new race, new classes, a new level cap, and more.

Check out MMOrning Shots every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Jagex Declares Runefest 2014 "Most Successful."

Jagex has declared this year’s Runefest, a convention for RuneScape fans, the most successful to date. At the festival held at London’s Tobacco Dock, Jagex revealed Chronicle, a collectible card game due to release next year. The convention played host to numerous presentations, Q&A sessions with developers, cosplay events, and other distractions.

At the center of the event, of course, was Jagex’s flagship title RuneScape. In addition to congratulating the game for its continued growth, a 20% bump in subscribers in July alone, design director Mark Oglive took to the stage to announce RuneLabs, an upcoming platform where players will be able to formally suggest ideas to be implemented, giving the community the chance to vote on said updates. RuneScape’s 2015 content schedule was partially revealed, with major updates including world events and a brand new client on their way.

Perhaps most impressive is the notation that 40% of Runefest attendees did not pay a dime of real money for their tickets, buying them using in-game wealth through RuneScape’s PLEX-esque Bond items.

The event also bore witness to an unprecedented broadening of RuneScape bonds usage. The digital currency allowed 40% of RuneFest attendees to obtain event tickets through their in-game wealth. Furthermore, a number of players used bonds to ‘pay’ for their accommodation and flights to the event, allowing them to attend RuneFest without spending a penny of real world money.

More details on Runefest revelations will be made available in the coming months.

(Source: Jagex press release)

SMITE Announced For Xbox One

Hi-Rez Studios came out at Gamescom to announce that the popular PC moba title will be making its way console-side. The ID@Xbox program allows developers of all sizes to bring their games to the Xbox platform, and is the platform through which SMITE will make its way to the console.

“As a third-person action game, SMITE is perfectly suited for the Xbox One controller”, said Chris Charla, Director of ID@Xbox for Microsoft. “We’re excited to feature a MOBA that fits our console audience in gameplay and look forward to Xbox gamers around the globe battling for dominance.”

There are no further details other than a tentative 2015 launch date at this time.

(Source: Hi-Rez Studios Press Release)

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