April 20, 2024

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Netmarble Games, Korea’s No. 1 mobile game developer and publisher, said on Feb. 13 that its operating income nearly halved in 2018 compared with a year earlier due to the belated launch of its new game products.

Operating profit tumbled 43.5 percent on-year to 241.7 billion won (US$215.40 million) last year and sales decreased 16.6 percent on-year to 2.21 trillion won, the company said. 

Revenue from overseas markets accounted for nearly 70 percent of its total sales in 2018, officials said.

For the fourth quarter of 2018, sales fell 20.9 percent on-year to 487.1 billion won and operating profit collapsed 43.5 percent on-year to 38 billion won.

“Most of the games that were supposed to be launched last year were postponed for more than a year, which greatly affected our annual earnings,” Netmarble CEO Kwon Yeong-sik said, adding that the company expects to recover after launching new games within the first half of this year.

Netmarble, established in 2000, has been producing and providing some of the most successful mobile and online games, including “MARVEL Future Fight,” “Seven Knights,” “EvilBane” (“RAVEN” in Korea and Japan) and “Everybody’s Marble.”

By Ram Garikipati and newswires (ram@heraldcorp.com)