Aion Publisher NCsoft Sees Profit Decline In First Quarter

Seoul, South Korea-based MMO publisher NCsoft has posted financial results for the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year, noting a decline in both revenue and profits year-over-year. The company cited "small-scaled sales promotions" for its two main game series, Lineage and Aion, as the cause of the flat revenues. For the quarter ended March 31, revenues were down 7 percent to KRW155.4 billion ($142.8 million), compared to KRW167.4 billion ($153.8 million) year-over-year. Profits also took a tumble, down 30 percent to KRW40.8 billion ($37.5 million) compared to KRW58.2 billion ($53.5 million) in the first quarter of the last fiscal year. Korea was once again the dominant region for game sales, with 101.3 billion KRW ($93.1 million) in sales making up 65 percent of the market share. Japan was the only region that saw an increase in sales year-over-year, making up 13 percent overall. The North American market share dropped by 3 percent to 7.1 billion KRW ($6.5 million), while Europe also saw a drop of 3 percent, down to 5.5 billion KRW ($5.1 million). During the quarter, Aion made up 44 percent of NCsoft's game sales, with KRW61.4 billion ($56.4 million) in sales, while Lineage 1 and 2 together made up 50 percent, with KRW69.3 billion ($63.7 million) in sales. Both Aion and Lineage saw a slight decrease in sales, while Lineage 2 received a slight increase. NCSoft noted that overseas sales of Aion were slow, while in China the game continued to sell well.