Tag: Royalties

NCSoft has released its finances for the second quarter of 2012, and considering that the major MMO news sites suddenly care enough to report on it, I can only assume that there is some drama to be had. Compared to last quarter, revenues are up thanks to solid Lineage sales and royalties, however NCSoft is in the red on operating profit and net income due to what the company refers to as “one-off labor costs.” Here are the bullet points of important details to explain why NCSoft’s profits sunk so low:

• Lineage sales were strong Korea, however Aion sales tanked due to “scaled back in-game item sales.”
• Labor costs surged 27% this past quarter due to severance-pay.
• Royalty expenses increased 35%
• Marketing expenses were up 112% over last quarter due to Blade & Soul
• D&A increased 28%
• NCSoft’s acquisition of Ntreev also ended up being a major cost.

While sales in Korea and Japan held strong, sales in North America continued a slight decline over last quarter. Europe has been hit the hardest, with sales decreasing to virtually nothing (less than 1% of sales for the quarter).

The launch of Guild Wars 2 is expected to make up for any losses incurred this quarter.