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)
NCSoft has announced that NCoin, the company’s premium currency, is available now at a select number of retailers. The list of retailers includes Walmart, Gamestop, Best Buy, and Toys R Us.
Whether you’re looking to stock up on NCoin, or give your fellow gamer friends some NCSOFT spending money for the holidays, NCoin cards are available now at several retail locations! View the list below and check with your local retailer about picking up some NCoin, good for purchases in NCSOFT games. Select cards will also provide a bonus item for your chosen game as a thank you for being an NCoin card purchaser.
(Source: Lineage II)
NCSoft’s latest quarterly reports are here, and that means it’s time to speculate on the future of City of Heroes, or Wildstar depending on what year you live in. Financially, NCSoft did pretty well in the third quarter, with sales up 11% over last year, profit up 29%, pre-tax income up 22%, and net income up 56%. As I said last year, the third quarter is the one where sales generally drop as developers run less promotions and everything is gearing up toward a higher fourth quarter. If the fourth quarter does worse than the third, you’re in bad shape. In consideration of the normal drop off from Q3 to Q4 coupled with some of the events that took place last quarter, I find it unlikely that anyone at the NCSoft offices are running around with their heads on fire.
So let’s talk about game performance, since NCSoft is virtually the only major publisher to post this kind of specific data. Lineage, while it did see a drop in income this quarter, continues to grow year over year as does Blade & Soul (although quarterly sales have been dropping). Lineage 2 showed the strongest growth for the quarter, while Guild Wars 2 continues to slump in sales following the fervor over its first expansion launch.
Now it’s time to talk about Wildstar. It sounds like a broken record at this point, but Wildstar has hit its lowest point in sales. Wildstar’s previous low was $1.13 million USD back before the free to play launch. Right now the game sits at approximately $940,000.
NCSoft CFO Yoon Jae-soo discussed NCSoft’s titles and their futures. Lineage, currently enjoying major success, is expected to continue rising in sales with a growth trajectory and a fourth quarter increase driven by new servers launched last year. Lineage 2, meanwhile, is showing a stable upward trend and is expected to perform better in 2016 compared to 2015. Blade & Soul is performing soundly with stable performance in both regions and is expected to show stable growth going into next year. As for Guild Wars 2, Arenanet continues development on a second expansion pack which will give a boost in sales.
Over on the Lineage Eternal side, signups are now open for the closed beta…in Korea. When asked about their development strategy, Yoon Jae-soo responded that NCSoft’s strategy with Lineage Eternal involves lowering system requirements so that the game can function on a variety of systems while making it “less challenging and less difficult” for new players who aren’t as familiar with the game. As for Lineage M, a mobile port of Lineage, the team expects to have something to show in the first quarter while not anticipating much in the way of migration from Lineage players.
Continued coverage of NCSoft’s finances will resume with NCSoft’s Q4 release in February.
NCSoft has dropped the latest trailer video for Lineage Eternal, the long awaited sequel to the company’s largest (and after close to two decades still its biggest money maker) MMO Lineage. For those keeping track, Lineage Eternal has gone through several delays plus a development team that isn’t too keen on discussing release schedules. With the beta set to launch this month in Korea (keep your fingers crossed), it looks like the game is finally on track for launch early next year.
NCSoft’s next quarterly report comes out this month, and will no doubt offer some level of insight into Lineage Eternal’s upcoming launch in Korea and internationally.
NCSoft has released a brand new Welcome to Wildstar video. The video doesn’t reveal anything new, but it does introduce the basics of the game to prospective gamers. The narrator seems to have had a fun time recording it.
NCSoft wants to show players how much it appreciates them, and probably apologize for the fact that character registration has been completely disabled while the team goes in and figures out how to deal with the overwhelming number of bots taking over the game. While registration is down until August 24th, players have been invited to redeem a player appreciation pack, containing a myriad of items and boosts.
The appreciation pack can be redeemed in game until September 16th and can be claimed once per account.
(Source: NCSoft)
MMO Fallout 