NCsoft announces First Quarter Results
SEOUL, South Korea, 9th May 2005/... NCsoft® Corporation (KSE: 036570.KS) today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2005.
Net revenue for the first quarter of the year was KRW (Korean Won) 60.4 billion (US$60.2 million). Operating profit was KRW 21.3 billion (US$21.2 million), recurring profit KRW 17.3 billion (US$17.2 million), and net profit KRW 12.6 billion (US$12.6 million).
Compared to the previous quarter net revenue of KRW 62.5 billion and operating profit of KRW 21.5 billion, this quarter's results shows four per cent and one per cent declines respectively. However, recurring profit increased by 12 per cent compared to the previous quarter's recurring profit of KRW 15.5 billion. The results also show that the profit from royalty earnings increased by 13 per cent over the previous quarter results, KRW 10.2, billion indicating that NCsoft is gaining success in international markets.
"2005 will be a meaningful year for NCsoft because we will be launching products that have been in development for quite a while," said Tack Jin Kim, chief executive officer. "Guild Wars launched simultaneously in North American and Europe on April 28 and the result is even better than we expected."
In its first week of launch in North America and Europe, approximately 250-thousand players created Guild Wars accounts. In Korea the game hit 500-thousand accounts in its first week of open beta service, surpassing numbers from the first week of Lineage® II's open beta service two years ago. Guild Wars® is expected to launch commercially in Korea in the second quarter.
As for the second half of 2005, Kim said, "City of VillainsTM, the sequel to the very successful City of Heroes® online game, will be launched in North America and Europe and casual games scheduled for launch via NCsoft's portal site in the fourth quarter are expected to expand NCsoft's customer demographics. In addition, more details on the AION project, another MMORPG scheduled for launch in Korea will be announced later this year."
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NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, Lineage and Guild Wars and all associated NCsoft logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. City of Heroes and City of Villains are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.