NCSOFT 3rd Quarter 2018 Revenues.

Kabulozo

The revenues of mobile games stabilized since the launch of Lineage M, in 3Q 2017, which resulted in a whooping half trillion in evenue. Their PC games also don't show any extreme move for above or bellow:

- Mobile games: 216,4 billion KRW
- Lineage: 40,3 billion KRW
- Blade & Soul: 30 billion KRW
- Guild Wars 2: 20,9 billion KRW
- Aion: 16,3 billion KRW
- Lineage 2: 15,6 billion KRW

- Royalties: 43,6 billion KRW

SBFord

This is also worth noting, particularly with regard to the flat earnings:

https://www.mmorpg.com/news/ncsoft-doubles-down-on-mobile-mmos-and-sequels-aion-2-blade-and-soul-2-and-more-1000050453

They're aiming at a brand new market.

Albatroes

I bet Activision-Blizzard is getting turned on looking at these mobile numbers of other companies.

Kabulozo

Albatroes said:

I bet Activision-Blizzard is getting turned on looking at these mobile numbers of other companies.

Actvision already makes tons of money with mobile games, they own King (Candy Crush).

Kyleran

Places them solidly at number 17 of the largest publicly traded video game makers.

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-25-companies-game-revenues/

Albatroes

Kabulozo said:

Albatroes said:

I bet Activision-Blizzard is getting turned on looking at these mobile numbers of other companies.

Actvision already makes tons of money with mobile games, they own King (Candy Crush).

Activision can never make enough money.

Kabulozo

Kyleran said:

Places them solidly at number 17 of the largest publicly traded video game makers.

https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-25-companies-game-revenues/

I wonder what Tencent can't buy. They own a lot of companies that made very successful games like Riot (LoL).

Cryomatrix

Tencent even owns 80% of GGG that makes path of exile, i had the stock one, so i owned a fraction of my favorite game.

Cryomatrix

I havent seen much of a difference, the founder of GGG runs things as is, i think they basically got an infusion of cash from tencent and tencent is hopefully smart enough not to screw around, so no thematic differences at all, mtx are still the same, no p2w, mainly cosmetics and QoL improvements.

Wizardry

Not one good cell phone game out yet,good to see people wasting money on trash,making crappy devs look good.

Battle Royale...Farmville ...Habbo Hotel...voxels  all kinds of low end game design making millions.

I guess that is the formula to success,make crappy low budget games.

We see a guy like Brad and team trying to put together a fully fledged mmorpg and then we see stuff like Candy Crush and Farmville raking in all the dough,yep the world has gone mad.Hard working people no longer rewarded,that ought to encourage some great games to come out...sigh.

ceratop001

It proves people want shitty mobile games over quality games.

Kabulozo

Wizardry said:

Not one good cell phone game out yet,good to see people wasting money on trash,making crappy devs look good.

Battle Royale...Farmville ...Habbo Hotel...voxels  all kinds of low end game design making millions.

I guess that is the formula to success,make crappy low budget games.

We see a guy like Brad and team trying to put together a fully fledged mmorpg and then we see stuff like Candy Crush and Farmville raking in all the dough,yep the world has gone mad.Hard working people no longer rewarded,that ought to encourage some great games to come out...sigh.

The mobile MMOs NC just announced recently are far from being low budget.

Pemmin

Gorwe said:

Cryomatrix said:

Tencent even owns 80% of GGG that makes path of exile, i had the stock one, so i owned a fraction of my favorite game.

How's the PoE? Has it been touched by 10c?

doing pretty good.....10cents modus operandi is to only touch their subsidiaries if they are declining otherwise they leave them alone.

cheyane

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Ungood

cheyane said:

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Pokemon' Go

By far this was the best game ever made on any platform, as it was a video game that got people to get their ass off the sofa and go outside and play.

Not that some of them could function outside for any length of time (given some of the warnings that would come up).. but.. it was about the most innovative game and social game ever made, as strangers on the street would talk to each other about Pokemon' and just chat.

Was a ground breaking and amazing game.

cheyane

Ungood said:

cheyane said:

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Pokemon' Go

By far this was the best game ever made on any platform, as it was a video game that got people to get their ass off the sofa and go outside and play.

Not that some of them could function outside for any length of time (given some of the warnings that would come up).. but.. it was about the most innovative game and social game ever made, as strangers on the street would talk to each other about Pokemon' and just chat.

Was a ground breaking and amazing game.

I see never played although I read a lot about it. May be I missed out on something great.

Ungood

Pokemon' Go, well I didn't play it, directly, my wife had it on her phone, so.. I would walk with her as she went about collecting Pokemon' .. it was surreal, meeting these geek/nerd kids, my wife would end up talking with them, and they would go from "I got a psyduck" to "So.. this app for my phone can do XYZ huh? So cool!" right along to "I heard (name) at the local (Store) is looking for a new stock handler in 2 weeks as his kid is going to college, you might want to talk with them"..

all because.. we all stopped at some stupid "historic" light post that I had passed hundreds of times before on my to and from work and never gave a damn about.. but now it was some Poke-em-stop or something.. and social interaction was happening.

Phry

Most interesting wasn't that there was a steady decline in revenue, but that the combined revenue from NA/EU represented such a small fraction of the revenue generated.
At least it does not look like the NA/EU revenue was shrinking much but growing it most definitely is not.
Have to wonder if NCSoft is giving up on the West, it would explain why they are concentrating on mobile at least.

Panther2103

Torval said:

cheyane said:

Ungood said:

cheyane said:

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Pokemon' Go

By far this was the best game ever made on any platform, as it was a video game that got people to get their ass off the sofa and go outside and play.

Not that some of them could function outside for any length of time (given some of the warnings that would come up).. but.. it was about the most innovative game and social game ever made, as strangers on the street would talk to each other about Pokemon' and just chat.

Was a ground breaking and amazing game.

I see never played although I read a lot about it. May be I missed out on something great.

It wasn't groundbreaking at all. It was a knockoff of a game called Ingress with a few visual upgrades. Mobile developers do this a lot. It was popular because of the Pokemon IP, not because of the format. Ingress isn't that popular even though they still try desperately to promote it.

NCSoft has big mobile revenue, in my opinion, because of their Lineage IP. None of their other IPs, including Lineage 2, have ever pulled in that kind of money consistently. I guess now we'll see if people will throw money at any mobile game or if they'll start getting choosy now that the mobile market is oversaturated.

My opinion is that game devs chase trends where they think the money is. I don't think the future is in mobile. The future is in multiplatform across devices for games and work. They're chasing last seasons trends, like MMO companies chased WoW.

Ingress was made by the same company though so not necessarily a knockoff as much as a reskin. 

I think you are right in that everyone is chasing mobile revenue, the problem is to get the money with mobile you literally have to follow what is popular at the time. Most people don't realize that mobile is formulaic with how people are willing to spend. Look at games that cost money, and what hits the top charts on android, and how many copies they sell. Something with 50k copies sold at 1 dollar is currently #4 (polybridge) and every other game on there is old as hell. While the F2P games can generate 100 million a month and be low on the top grossing list. It's insane. 

I'm hoping you are right and that the future isn't in mobile, but with numbers like this, and how accessible the games are to anyone with a phone, I just can't see it not being the future. I'm hoping they go the path of Fortnite and have cross play with PC games. 

Phry

Panther2103 said:

Torval said:

cheyane said:

Ungood said:

cheyane said:

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Pokemon' Go

By far this was the best game ever made on any platform, as it was a video game that got people to get their ass off the sofa and go outside and play.

Not that some of them could function outside for any length of time (given some of the warnings that would come up).. but.. it was about the most innovative game and social game ever made, as strangers on the street would talk to each other about Pokemon' and just chat.

Was a ground breaking and amazing game.

I see never played although I read a lot about it. May be I missed out on something great.

It wasn't groundbreaking at all. It was a knockoff of a game called Ingress with a few visual upgrades. Mobile developers do this a lot. It was popular because of the Pokemon IP, not because of the format. Ingress isn't that popular even though they still try desperately to promote it.

NCSoft has big mobile revenue, in my opinion, because of their Lineage IP. None of their other IPs, including Lineage 2, have ever pulled in that kind of money consistently. I guess now we'll see if people will throw money at any mobile game or if they'll start getting choosy now that the mobile market is oversaturated.

My opinion is that game devs chase trends where they think the money is. I don't think the future is in mobile. The future is in multiplatform across devices for games and work. They're chasing last seasons trends, like MMO companies chased WoW.

Ingress was made by the same company though so not necessarily a knockoff as much as a reskin. 

I think you are right in that everyone is chasing mobile revenue, the problem is to get the money with mobile you literally have to follow what is popular at the time. Most people don't realize that mobile is formulaic with how people are willing to spend. Look at games that cost money, and what hits the top charts on android, and how many copies they sell. Something with 50k copies sold at 1 dollar is currently #4 (polybridge) and every other game on there is old as hell. While the F2P games can generate 100 million a month and be low on the top grossing list. It's insane. 

I'm hoping you are right and that the future isn't in mobile, but with numbers like this, and how accessible the games are to anyone with a phone, I just can't see it not being the future. I'm hoping they go the path of Fortnite and have cross play with PC games. 

I don't think the future is mobile, i don't think they are going away but i don't think they will be a 'main platform' until a number of technological issues are resolved, not least of which is the whole screen size and controls issues.
Looking at NCSofts revenue from mobile, i have to wonder if it is at all indicative of the market in general, though bearing in mind this is the Korean market as that is where the mobile revenue is generated for NCSoft, in 3Q2017 the mobile games generated 551m KRW, which is a lot and their largest revenue stream, however, quarter on quarter that amount dropped precipitously,  4Q2017 it fell to 327m KRW, which is huge, but it didn't stop there, and now 3Q2018 it had risen slightly to just 216m KRW.
Mobile games are ephemeral in nature when it comes to revenue, but if this is indicative of a general trend in Korea, it could mean that players there are moving away from Mobile too, still very popular, but by far less popular than it was a year ago, so, NCSoft concentrating on mobile is probably a sign of them trying to reverse the trend, but the question as always is did those players shift to other games, or to other platforms?.

Kabulozo

Phry said:

Panther2103 said:

Torval said:

cheyane said:

Ungood said:

cheyane said:

Could someone please link a good mobile game because I'm curious what could ever make a mobile game better than a PC game.

Pokemon' Go

By far this was the best game ever made on any platform, as it was a video game that got people to get their ass off the sofa and go outside and play.

Not that some of them could function outside for any length of time (given some of the warnings that would come up).. but.. it was about the most innovative game and social game ever made, as strangers on the street would talk to each other about Pokemon' and just chat.

Was a ground breaking and amazing game.

I see never played although I read a lot about it. May be I missed out on something great.

It wasn't groundbreaking at all. It was a knockoff of a game called Ingress with a few visual upgrades. Mobile developers do this a lot. It was popular because of the Pokemon IP, not because of the format. Ingress isn't that popular even though they still try desperately to promote it.

NCSoft has big mobile revenue, in my opinion, because of their Lineage IP. None of their other IPs, including Lineage 2, have ever pulled in that kind of money consistently. I guess now we'll see if people will throw money at any mobile game or if they'll start getting choosy now that the mobile market is oversaturated.

My opinion is that game devs chase trends where they think the money is. I don't think the future is in mobile. The future is in multiplatform across devices for games and work. They're chasing last seasons trends, like MMO companies chased WoW.

Ingress was made by the same company though so not necessarily a knockoff as much as a reskin. 

I think you are right in that everyone is chasing mobile revenue, the problem is to get the money with mobile you literally have to follow what is popular at the time. Most people don't realize that mobile is formulaic with how people are willing to spend. Look at games that cost money, and what hits the top charts on android, and how many copies they sell. Something with 50k copies sold at 1 dollar is currently #4 (polybridge) and every other game on there is old as hell. While the F2P games can generate 100 million a month and be low on the top grossing list. It's insane. 

I'm hoping you are right and that the future isn't in mobile, but with numbers like this, and how accessible the games are to anyone with a phone, I just can't see it not being the future. I'm hoping they go the path of Fortnite and have cross play with PC games. 

I don't think the future is mobile, i don't think they are going away but i don't think they will be a 'main platform' until a number of technological issues are resolved, not least of which is the whole screen size and controls issues.
Looking at NCSofts revenue from mobile, i have to wonder if it is at all indicative of the market in general, though bearing in mind this is the Korean market as that is where the mobile revenue is generated for NCSoft, in 3Q2017 the mobile games generated 551m KRW, which is a lot and their largest revenue stream, however, quarter on quarter that amount dropped precipitously,  4Q2017 it fell to 327m KRW, which is huge, but it didn't stop there, and now 3Q2018 it had risen slightly to just 216m KRW.
Mobile games are ephemeral in nature when it comes to revenue, but if this is indicative of a general trend in Korea, it could mean that players there are moving away from Mobile too, still very popular, but by far less popular than it was a year ago, so, NCSoft concentrating on mobile is probably a sign of them trying to reverse the trend, but the question as always is did those players shift to other games, or to other platforms?.

3Q17 was the quarter when Lineage M launched, resulting in a 85%+ mobile revenue increase from the previous quarter. sales are now stable at the 200 billion range. And expect a  spike jump following the launch of L2M next year.

rojoArcueid

Why are they counting all their mobiles earnings as 1 product but PC games are counted separately? of course it will be a huge difference.

That is the same shady strategy companies (and some journalists) use to compare digital game sales to physical game sales, by adding MTX and DLC to the digital sales to bump the number because they are digital transactions.

Phry

rojoArcueid said:

Why are they counting all their mobiles earnings as 1 product but PC games are counted separately? of course it will be a huge difference.

That is the same shady strategy companies (and some journalists) use to compare digital game sales to physical game sales, by adding MTX and DLC to the digital sales to bump the number because they are digital transactions.

Effectively they are one product, as one game phases out another one replaces it, it would be pointless to list every single mobile product that generated revenue.

Kabulozo

rojoArcueid said:

Why are they counting all their mobiles earnings as 1 product but PC games are counted separately? of course it will be a huge difference.

That is the same shady strategy companies (and some journalists) use to compare digital game sales to physical game sales, by adding MTX and DLC to the digital sales to bump the number because they are digital transactions.

Currently they only own Lineage M and Lineage Red Knights. Lineage 2 Revolution was not developed by NCSoft themselves but Netmarble, as a result, the the earnings generated from L2R are put in "Royalties" not in "Mobile games".