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THE INVESTOR]
NCsoft on Aug. 7 reported a weak performance for the second quarter despite a rise in sales.
Sales increased 7.52 percent on-year to 258.6 billion won (US$229.4) during the April-June period, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Despite the rise in sales, net profit came to 30.8 billion won, down 65.91 percent from the previous year, the company said. Operating income also shrank 56.39 percent on-year to 30.8 billion won.
The figures were far below the market consensus of 300 billion won in sales and 60 billion won in operating income.
The weaker-than-expected second-quarter earnings were in part due to the poor performance of the company’s computer game business despite the popularity of the mobile version of its mega-hit game “Lineage,” “Lineage M,” industry sources said.
By product, sales of “Lineage” came to 33.8 billion won in the second quarter, followed by “Lineage 2” with 16.7 billion won. Revenues from the mobile game business came to 93.7 billion won, accounting for 36 percent of the total.
By region, sales came in at 170.4 billion won in Korea, 28.7 billion won in North America and Europe, 10.5 billion won in Japan and 9.3 billion won in Taiwan.
By Alex Lee and newswires (
alexlee@heraldcorp.com)