Kotaku’s Jason Schreier is reporting today that ArenaNet employees have been told to brace for big layoffs. According to the article, CEO Songyee Yoon emailed employees to inform them that due to declining revenue, the company will be cutting costs across the organization, and merging NCSoft and ArenaNet’s publishing divisions in the process.
There has been no word on how many employees will be affected by the layoffs.
Source: Kotaku
Carbine Studios will close its doors and Wildstar Online will shut down, according to an announcement released today by NCSoft. Kotaku broke the story, noting that the layoffs at Carbine will include 50 people and comes after at least two projects failed to gain traction with the studio’s parent company and publisher.
NCSoft stated to Kotaku,
“WildStar players who have spent money within the game will be refunded purchases from July 1, 2018 until the payment system is shut off. We are also in the process of identifying the teams that will be doing the work to bring WildStar to a close. These decisions are very difficult to make and we are in the midst of shifting as many of our teammates as possible into other roles within the organization.”
NCSoft’s reluctance to shut down Wildstar came off as confusing, despite effectively ending major content support and refusing to even acknowledge the title by name in its quarterly earnings reports. There have not been any concrete details released as of yet on when Wildstar will sunset its servers.
As of this article, the official Wildstar website has not posted an announcement related to this news.
NCSoft today released their fourth quarter results for 2017 and the company has posted increased earnings across the board over last year. Sales, profits, and income grew over 80% over the same period in 2016 fueled primarily by the company’s massive success in the mobile market and the launch of the latest expansion for Guild Wars 2. Mobile sales dropped 41% over the last quarter as the launch fervor of Lineage M dies down, while Guild Wars 2 gained a 73% growth over the same period.
For the year of 2017, mobile sales accounted for 57% of total earnings while Lineage 1 dropped 59% with much of that revenue being players transferring to Lineage M. Revenues from Korea and royalties grew massively while the market share from US/Europe, Japan, and Taiwan decreased slightly. Fourth quarter earnings from the US/Europe did grow despite the overall yearly drop due to sales of Guild Wars 2 and its expansion.
(Source: NCSoft)
NCSoft has announced that its MOBA title Master x Master will shut down in January. Master x Master launched in June of this year and never made much of a blip on NCSoft’s financial radar, certainly not enough to even warrant a mention on their quarterly reports. In fact, an investor might have gone the entire cycle without realizing that the game had ever existed.
With the service set to shut down on January 31, NCSoft has put the following changes into effect:
(Source; NCSoft)
NCSoft’s third quarter results are in, and the results are incredible. Thanks to strong performances in the mobile sector, the Korean developer/publisher has posted record sales and profits, as can be seen in the chart above. Mobile gaming now makes up 82% of NCSoft’s sales figures, posting 551 billion won in sales ($491 million USD) in just one quarter.
The popularity of NCSoft’s mobile titles in Korea has driven its sales up over 260% over the last quarter while Guild Wars 2 saw revenue increase 50% from sales of the latest Guild Wars 2 expansion. Lineage II, Aion, and Blade & Soul all saw their revenues drop slightly while Lineage experienced a small increase in sales. Lineage II Revolution expansion overseas and strong performance of Blade & Soul in China also helped with royalty revenue.
(Source: NCSoft)
The oft-delayed and seemingly just as oft-rebooted Lineage Eternal is being rebooted as The Lineage. Set for beta in 2018, The Lineage is a totally new project with much of the game assets replaced, including the engine. The Lineage will run on Unreal Engine 4, has five confirmed classes, and will retain the seige system from the previous incarnation.
(Source: MMO Culture)
One sentence no player wants to hear is that when a developer announces that their game is just too generous, but for Master X Master players, that fear is becoming a reality. In an announcement on the official website, NCSoft has revealed its perspective that players are getting away with a little too much, and as such don’t have much of a reason to invest real money in the game to shortcut their way through progression.
Our goal with MXM is to provide different activities and ways to progress and unlock Masters at a reasonable rate through the use of SOL, or through quicker unlocks with X-Coin. SOL is currently quite generous, which means players progress through the game and content much faster than intended, and our X-Coin prices just aren’t comparable for those that choose to buy X-Coin as a shortcut.
In response, NCSoft is cutting the accumulation rate of SOL, an in-game currency, across the board. You can find the details at the link below, but the gist is that you’ll be getting less SOL and certain things will become more expensive.
(Source: MXM)
NCSoft’s second quarter finances have been released and they are quite a doozy. While sales grew 8% both quarterly and over last year, profit and income both dropped 56% and 66% respectively thanks to increased labor costs and marketing increases. Just how much? 370%, from 5.1 billion KRW in Q2 2016 to 24.1 billion in 2017. Similarly, labor costs jumped 24% and “variable costs” went up 186%, due in part to a 244% increase in royalty payments. Ouch.
On the game’s side of the report, mobile has dominated NCSoft’s revenue reports and has become the largest sector by a wide margin, even against Lineage which continued to drop in revenue thanks to a lack of promotion over the second quarter. Every other title in NCSoft’s library (as noted below) also dropped by some factor in revenue during this period, with the sale of mobile games making up for their shortcomings. The launch of Lineage M, the mobile Lineage port, is also to thank for a drop in Lineage revenue as some players made the jump over to mobile.
Guild Wars 2 is expected to receive a substantial bump thanks to the impending launch of its next expansion. The full report can be found over at the NCSoft website
NCSoft’s quarterly earnings have been made available and the results are not so bad. Sales fell 1% over the same time last year thanks to early recognition of Lineage 1 promotion sales with NCSoft pointing to lower demand than expected for Lineage M, the mobile release of Lineage. Operating profit and income plummeted 60-70% year over year due to incentives paid on the back of high earnings last year, meaning NCSoft players should not see these figures as the end times.
To put it into perspective, NCSoft’s net income dropped from 66,804 (million Korean Won) to 17,394 (49,410) over the past quarter. Labor cost increases due to increased headcount and incentives rose 33% by 33,175 while royalty payments exploded 398% over last quarter by 2,261. In short, while sales fell 1% over last year, operating costs increased 24% due to said overhead costs.
On the games front, Lineage sales plummeted by more than half, however much of that is due to the aforementioned early sales recognition is unknown. Lineage II and Aion similarly dipped in revenue, although not by nearly as large of a margin, while Blade & Soul grew compared to the last two quarters and Guild Wars 2 remained relatively stable. Wildstar, as mentioned in the previous release, is no longer listed on NCSoft’s quarterly reports.
NCSoft has released their fourth quarter financial statements and the news is quite positive. Compared to the same period last year, sales rose 20% with operating profit up 36% over the same period, thanks to strong performance from major IPs and strong launches in the mobile market. The report notes that sales have hit a historic high thanks to geographical expansion and new business models.
Over on the game’s front, Lineage 1 continues to impress with a 42% increase in sales over last year, an insane jump for an MMO that is going on nineteen years old. Another title to see solid annual growth was Blade & Soul, which continues to be popular as it rolls out worldwide. Lineage II saw a fair amount of growth while Guild Wars 2 continues to rock steadily as it awaits a new expansion pack. The other category contains Lineage Red Knights, whose successful rollout boosted the category by 97%.
One game you may note as missing from the sales breakdown is Wildstar. It isn’t there. It appears that the game’s sales have dropped enough that it is no longer worth listing as a product separate from the “other” category.
(Source: NCSoft Finance)
MMO Fallout 