Tag: Nexon

Nexon Announces Biggest Third Quarter Ever In Earnings Release


Nexon has released its third quarter revenue results and the times are looking pretty good for the developer/publisher. Driven by strong performance of its top titles including Dungeon & Fighter, Fifa Online 3, and the Maplestory 2 test in China, Nexon enjoyed a 36% increase in revenue over last year with net income up 157% over the same period.

Q3 was a great quarter for Nexon, with revenues, operating income and net income well above our expectations. It was also the biggest Q3 ever. These strong results reflect continued growth in our key existing titles in China and Korea, as well as strong starts in new games both PC and mobile.

Over in North America, Nexon placed blame for lower than expected revenues squarely on the shoulders of Lawbreakers, which launched in August and never managed to develop a following. The earnings call indicates that Nexon is writing off Lawbreakers as a loss, as its impairment made up a majority of the losses for North America for this quarter, meaning that development will either be ceasing or there are plans to divest Nexon from Boss Key Productions.

Our results in North America in the third quarter were below our outlook, mainly due to the sales from LawBreakers being below our expectations. LawBreakers is a unique FPS developed for core users. We had very high expectations for its launch; however, the timing of its launch turned out to be unfortunate, specifically the blockbuster PC online game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds came out right about the same time, making the market environment very tough for first-person shooters in general and for LawBreakers.

Nexon expects these fortunes to turn around in Q4 with the acquisition of Pixelberry Studios.

Nexon’s good fortunes are expected to continue into the fourth quarter and beyond with a strong schedule of games launching worldwide.

(Source: Report, Earnings Call)

[NM] Lawbreakers Discussing Marketing, Dismisses Free To Play


Lawbreakers launched nearly one month ago, and suffice to say the game hasn’t been that well received on PC. Despite boasting a “mostly positive” review score from those who did pick up the title, the population peaked at 3,000 and has plummeted to a present 163 concurrent users as of 9am EST on a Wednesday morning as of this writing (by comparison, the recently free Brink has 813 people playing). Cliff Bleszinski has called the game a “marathon, not a sprint,” dismissing concerns over population issues and expressing hope that the game will see an increase in players over time.

But if you’re holding out for free to play, it isn’t being discussed. Over on the Steam forums, when asked about plans to address low traffic, the following response was given:

To answer the original question “when”, I can only say “soon”. We had roadmap meetings with Boss Key last week on what they have planned for the rest of the year. We’re working out a marketing plan to support that new content and reach out to more people. We’re also doing regular updates to the game based on player feedback, so we are listening and acting on the issues that come up.

We are committed to the long-term success of the game. And no, we are not discussing F2P.

The person quoted is a representative of Nexon, the publisher of Lawbreakers. The statement was later reiterated in the same thread:

We are not discussing F2P, and the OP is correct, it doesn’t really solve more issues than it brings with it. We are still working on patches (next one is next week), future content as well as addressing player pop.

Boss Key’s plans to revitalize the game will have to be seen, but at its current trajectory the game is going to need a big marketing push in order to get its name out there.

Nexon Celebrates Chaos Chronicle One Year Anniversary


Nexon America is currently celebrating the one year anniversary of Chaos Chronicle, 2D mobile MMORPG available on Android and iOS, and is hosting a variety of events over the course of this week. The content, listed below, is available for new and returning players and includes a new Play Points gameplay feature to assist players in obtaining rewards.

  • Special Attendance Disciple Contract – Get the Disciple Contract and receive access to powerful Special Heroes and numerous popular items such as rare Rubies and formidable Elite Accessories just by logging on between Aug. 3 and Sept. 6;
  • Increased Hero Contract Mileage – Sign-in between July 30 and Aug. 6 to receive an unprecedented 150 percent mileage increase on all player Hero Contracts purchased in the shop;
  • New Play Points Gameplay Element – Play Points are earned by completing in-game quests. Players can acquire up to 30 unique rewards, including the mighty Disciple Equipment Box, a Hero Selection Contract and an Elite Accessory Box;
  • Limited-Time Discounted Items: Between July 30 and Aug. 6, players have the opportunity to refine equipment for a 50 percent discount on valuable Rubies.

Chaos Chronicle is available on iOS and Android.

(Source: Nexon press release)

Mabinogi Duel Crosses With Guilty Gear


Nexon today announced that it is collaborating with Arc System Works to incorporate its popular Guilty Gear franchise into the trading card game, Mabinogi Duel. Based on the MMO, Mabinogi Duel is available on both iOS and Android devices, with players battling each other from all over the world using decks of cards inspired by Mabinogi.

The collaboration also marks a wave of events, listed below for your convenience.

(Source: Nexon Press Release)

Guilty Gear Hero Launch – Beginning June 29, players can complete in-game objectives to acquire and use powerful Guilty Gear heroes;

  • Epic Arena Event – Improve your rank at the PvE Arena to earn Gems, Special Tickets and Boosters from July 2 through July 26;
  • Intense Battle Missions – Take on dueling missions with formidable opponents to earn valuable rewards;
  • New Special Edition Boosters Availability – Special Edition Boosters go on sale each week from June 29 through July 27. The new boosters include:
    • June 29 – Fairy: Yorma
    • July 6 – Tiny Hippo
    • July 13 – Angel: Mika
    • July 20 – Mage: 39-years-old;
    • Weekly Log-in Incentives – Log-in every Thursday and Sunday to receive 15 Gems and 2 Special Tickets weekly.

Nexon Acquires Unannounced Game


Nexon has acquired the worldwide publishing rights for the first born video game of First Strike, which may lead to some MMO Fallout readers asking “well what’s the game?” Patience, my children, as the game hasn’t been announced yet. Formed last year, First Strike is a new on the scene developer composed of developers from 343 Industries, EA, and more.

More details will be announced later this year.

“We are super focused on competitive multiplayer games at First Strike,” said Kevin Franklin, CEO, First Strike Games.  “In Nexon, we found a partner who has truly understood the gameplay we are exploring, has embraced our company vision and has contributed great ideas and expertise. We are looking forward to making amazing games together.”

(Source: Nexon press release)

NEXON Invests In Tree of Savior Developer IMC Games


Nexon has announced that its subsidiary Nexon Korea has made a strategic investment in IMC Games, developer of the Tree of Savior MMO. Tree of Savior has been up and running in Korea since December 2015 and September 2016 in Japan, features fairytale-motif graphics, and a class development system for character customization. IMC Games is best known for its MMORPGs including Tree of Savior and Granado Espada.

“We’re thrilled to strengthen our collaboration with our talented partner, IMC GAMES,” said Jiwon Park, Chief Executive Officer of Nexon Korea. “We are confident that together we will continue to deliver high-quality games that leverage strength of each company in game development and publishing.”

Tree of Savior is free to play on Steam.

(Source: Nexon press release)

PSA: Return To Atlantica Online, or Lose Everything


Atlantica Online is getting a new set of parents in the form of VALOFE, moving from its current home at Nexon on January 11th. As part of this transition, players are warned to transfer their stuff or face the possibility of losing it. Anyone who does not transfer their account over by the January 11th transition will lose everything, and there won’t be a way to get it back.

“We’ve always had the passion for playing games. We think that this is a great foundation for being able to operate the game for the community we’re about to have.” said the Game Operation Team for Atlantica Online in VALOFE. “We [VALOFE] envision the acquisition as a ‘homecoming’ and an opportunity to awaken the great potential of this MMO, promising the improvement of game-play for players, veteran and new.”

Our thoughts: If you have an account on Atlantica Online, do yourself a favor and just transfer it. You a year from now who wants to play it again will be thankful.

(Source: VALOFE press release)

Nexon Releases Q3 Financial Highlights


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Nexon has released their third quarter financials for 2016 for the period ending September 30th, and the results are in. While third quarter revenues (44.3 billion yen) dropped 11% over last year, they exceeded estimations thanks to the strong performances of Maplestory and Dungeon & Fighter in Korea along with solid performance from Dungeon & Fighter in China. Operating income landed at 16.3 billion yen, also exceeding expectations thanks to higher revenue in China and lower than expected marketing costs.

Owen Mahoney, President of Nexon, had the following to say:

“We are pleased with our third quarter performance, which exceeded our outlook, driven by strong performance in our PC online game business in China and Korea. We also are seeing positive early performance from many of our new mobile titles, and look forward to exhibiting some of our most highly anticipated titles at the upcoming G-STAR*, including Dungeon & Fighter: Spirit, Project Dynasty Warriors (tentative), DARK AVENGER 3, LawBreakers and Moonlight Blade. This is an exciting time for Nexon as we begin to realize the benefits of our many recent strategic investments and partnerships and extensive internal development efforts. With a strong pipeline of titles and plans to continue to expand our presence into global game market, we have tremendous opportunity ahead.”

Fourth quarter revenues are expected to fall to somewhere between 39.3 and 42.2 billion yen, with the PC market making up around 29 billion and the mobile sector taking on the other 12 billion.

Cash Shop Trading Coming To Riders of Icarus


Riders of Icarus

Pop quiz: Name one way in which developers have successfully decreased gold farming while raising revenue. If you guessed tradeable cash shop items, you are correct. Riders of Icarus is the latest title to jump on board the trading bandwagon with the announcement that a new section of the shop will allow players to buy tradeable goods that can be bought and sold on the auction house.

NX Plus is a new section of Ellora’s Shop that’s coming in the next update. Riders can buy items within the NX Plus tab with NX Prepaid and those items are tradable or can be sold on the Auction House!  This new feature will allow more Riders access to more items from Ellora’s Shop. Riders who have gold but lack NX can buy these items as they’re placed on the open market, allowing those Riders access to items previously unavailable to them. Only the items purchased directly from the NX Plus tab can be traded and only when the items are not used or otherwise bound to a Rider.

What’s the catch? Unlike in other titles, the items available on the NX Plus portion of the cash shop won’t be static, they rotate in and out every so often making some items only available for a short period of time. You’ll have to catch the items you want as they are available.

(Source: Nexon)

Nexon Q2 Quarterly Revenues Hit “Strong,”


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Nexon, developer of everything and publisher of everything else, has finally announced their second quarter results for the 2016 fiscal year, referencing their performance as “strong” despite lower than expected revenue.

Second quarter revenues reached 38 billion yen, down 11% over last year with net income amounting to 7.6 billion yen over the same period. Nexon blamed the majority of the loss on foreign exchange losses from money deposited overseas. Despite these losses, Nexon grew slightly in revenue over the first half of 2016 compared to the first half of 2015, however income has taken a huge hit due to impairment loss taken in the first quarter.

For the unaware, impairment loss refers to a product whose future earnings are lower than the cost of acquisition. In this case, Nexon purchased mobile developer Gloop a few years back and the developer isn’t making money.

“Our solid second quarter results reflect strong execution and good performance from our China business,” said Owen Mahoney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nexon. “I am also pleased with the important strategic progress we made during the quarter, including our partnership with renowned Japanese developer Sansho Studios and our acquisition of wellgames, the Korean developer of SPECIAL SOLDIER, a high-quality first person shooter for mobile devices. Our best-in-class roster of partnerships remains a cornerstone of our strategy to deliver high-quality, tailored content to players around the world.”

Nexon has a number of games in its publishing pipeline for this year and next, including Riders of Icarus, Lawbreakers, Titanfall, Final Fantasy XI Mobile, Lego Mobile, and more.

(Source: Nexon)