Tag: Korea

Fun Facts From NCSoft’s Q1 2010 Report


I love earnings reports, more so because I am a huge number crunching nerd, but because it gives us an occasional glimpse into how MMO developers are doing. NCsoft finally got around to filing their Q1 reports, and there is plenty of information to be found, namely in what game is doing better than others.

I often hear complaints about NCsoft pushing North American and European players to the side, and quite frankly they might have good reason. The breakdown of NCsoft’s income paints a picture as to why NA and EU may take a back seat to other regions.

  1. Korea: 65%
  2. Japan: 11%
  3. N. America: 8%
  4. Europe: 7%
  5. Taiwan: 4%

Korea is still NCsoft’s biggest market by far, with NCsoft making almost as much from royalties (the remaining 6%) as they do from N. America or Europe.

As far as game sales themselves go, NCsoft pointed out at the top of the page that Lineage is continuing its growth momentum, which is quite impressive for a game hitting its twelfth birthday this September.

  1. Aion: 71,235
  2. Lineage: 47,507
  3. Lineage 2: 29,662
  4. City of Heroes: 3,348
  5. Others: 3,255
  6. Guild Wars: 2,382

Sales are down 5% from the last quarter, however the trend is continuing upward on a year over year scale. Profits have also increased due to what NCsoft referred to as cost cutting programs to improve efficiency. Arenanet looks like they are in some hot water, as their quarterly sales are down 33% from last quarter, and are plummeting on a year-by-year basis of 47%, making it the lowest operating NCsoft at this point. NCEurope did the worst this quarter with a 50% drop a sales, but is still riding a 180% year on year growth.

A few of the titles are disappointing, yet not all that unsurprising. Guild Wars, considering its age, is getting to the point where most of the people who will purchase it have already purchased it. Not to mention Guild Wars doesn’t exactly have a subscription to ride on for cash. City of Heroes is getting on in its age, although the game and its community are still going very strong. Lineage and Lineage 2 are still big sellers in Korea, no surprises there.

NCsoft is looking at a lot of potential in the next few years, what with their upcoming titles. Aion still appears to be selling strong, although the recent announcement of server mergers…well that’s for another story.

Fun Facts From NCSoft's Q1 2010 Report


I love earnings reports, more so because I am a huge number crunching nerd, but because it gives us an occasional glimpse into how MMO developers are doing. NCsoft finally got around to filing their Q1 reports, and there is plenty of information to be found, namely in what game is doing better than others.

I often hear complaints about NCsoft pushing North American and European players to the side, and quite frankly they might have good reason. The breakdown of NCsoft’s income paints a picture as to why NA and EU may take a back seat to other regions.

  1. Korea: 65%
  2. Japan: 11%
  3. N. America: 8%
  4. Europe: 7%
  5. Taiwan: 4%

Korea is still NCsoft’s biggest market by far, with NCsoft making almost as much from royalties (the remaining 6%) as they do from N. America or Europe.

As far as game sales themselves go, NCsoft pointed out at the top of the page that Lineage is continuing its growth momentum, which is quite impressive for a game hitting its twelfth birthday this September.

  1. Aion: 71,235
  2. Lineage: 47,507
  3. Lineage 2: 29,662
  4. City of Heroes: 3,348
  5. Others: 3,255
  6. Guild Wars: 2,382

Sales are down 5% from the last quarter, however the trend is continuing upward on a year over year scale. Profits have also increased due to what NCsoft referred to as cost cutting programs to improve efficiency. Arenanet looks like they are in some hot water, as their quarterly sales are down 33% from last quarter, and are plummeting on a year-by-year basis of 47%, making it the lowest operating NCsoft at this point. NCEurope did the worst this quarter with a 50% drop a sales, but is still riding a 180% year on year growth.

A few of the titles are disappointing, yet not all that unsurprising. Guild Wars, considering its age, is getting to the point where most of the people who will purchase it have already purchased it. Not to mention Guild Wars doesn’t exactly have a subscription to ride on for cash. City of Heroes is getting on in its age, although the game and its community are still going very strong. Lineage and Lineage 2 are still big sellers in Korea, no surprises there.

NCsoft is looking at a lot of potential in the next few years, what with their upcoming titles. Aion still appears to be selling strong, although the recent announcement of server mergers…well that’s for another story.

Real Money Trading In Korea: In Plain English


If Funcom's money was gold-backed...

In violation of my court order to only use the gold image a maximum of twice on the front page, many MMOers are probably aware of South Korea ruling that real money trading, the conversion of digital cash to real cash, is now legal. Your gold pieces, kinah, plats, gil, influence, adena, credits, ISK, whatever you call that cash in your pocket, may be traded for real life cash. There appears, as most news stories have this effect, to be a fervor among MMOers (players and developers alike) as to what this means for their favorite titles. Will City of Heroes be encumbered by Koreans? Will Aion become even more saturated with this gold farming menace? Won’t somebody please think of the children?

As always, when there is a legal question to be asked, MMO Fallout’s “In Plain English” is here to explain it to you. To put it down in plain lettering, what this law does is turn the businesses into legitimate operations, that will pay taxes and refer to themselves in a way that would actually describe what they do.

What the law does not do is make gold farming legal, nor will it prevent companies from banning gold farmers. Swearing is legal, but it can still get you banned if you do it in an MMO. Although this bill does run up the possibility of there being a lot more gold farming companies to deal with, now that the scope is no longer limited to shady businessmen running a small building full of gold farmers off the books, and is more along the lines of a legitimate (questionably) business.

In all likelihood, the increased presence of bots and gold farmers will be minimal, unless you’re moderating the MMO Fallout comments and have to deal with “Hey, great website. I agree with all the things you said here and, by the way, I no this guy who powerlevels fishing. You shud try out his service, very cheep.” on a daily basis, or have to deal with magical pingbacks that don’t lead to a valid website (I do check the links in people’s comments before I approve them).

Happy MMOing.

NCsoft Nukes Server Cloggers: New Servers!


aionqueue

Aion is one of the few MMOs to incorporate private shops in addition to an Auction House. Players are able to set up shop wherever they go, allowing their character to set up a little table for other player to browse. Current Aion players that I talked to on the subject prefer the private shops to the auction house, noting that in the auction house there are “too many instances of players doing everything to undercut each other in price.” Setting up a shop also removes the automatic logout feature for players who are away from keyboard.

Continue reading “NCsoft Nukes Server Cloggers: New Servers!”