[Click eStock] "Com2uS, Baeknyeon Jeonjaeng Hits Early but Falls into Slump"

Ebest Investment "Com2uS Target Price Lowered from 205,000 KRW to 166,000 KRW"
Marketing and Labor Costs Also Burden... 20 Billion KRW Spent on Hundred Years' War Marketing Alone

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Com2uS's new release in April, "Summoners War: Hundred Years' War" (Hundred Years' War), has failed to maintain its initial success and has fallen into a slump. Additionally, the marketing expenses and labor costs invested in the new title have become a burden.

On the 29th, Ebest Investment & Securities downgraded Com2uS's expected performance for the second quarter of this year. Revenue was lowered from the previous 190.3 billion KRW to 164.5 billion KRW, and operating profit was also reduced from 49.9 billion KRW to 18.1 billion KRW. The full-year operating profit is expected to decrease to 98.5 billion KRW, down from last year's 114.1 billion KRW.

The poor performance of Hundred Years' War is interpreted as having a negative impact on the results. Released on April 29, Hundred Years' War recorded daily average sales of over 1 billion KRW for ten days after launch, gaining popularity. However, daily average sales began to plummet starting last month. In mid-last month, the daily average sales of Hundred Years' War were around 300 to 400 million KRW, and this month they dropped to 100 to 200 million KRW.

Com2uS conducted four content updates to overcome the slump, but the downward trend could not be stopped. On the 13th of last month, one rare-grade monster was added, and on the 27th, one legendary-grade, one normal-grade monster, and tournament content were updated. On the 10th of this month, one legendary-grade and one heroic-grade monster were newly revealed, and on the 24th, the blood battle content was introduced, but public interest waned. Sung Jong-hwa, a researcher at Ebest Investment & Securities, explained, "Despite continuous content additions, daily sales did not rebound," adding, "We are lowering the second quarter daily average sales forecast for Hundred Years' War by 51%, from 780 million KRW to 385 million KRW."

Marketing expenses and labor costs for Hundred Years' War are also burdensome. Com2uS has spent more than 20 billion KRW solely on marketing for Hundred Years' War. They also conducted marketing for the 7th anniversary promotion of Summoners War, so the total quarterly marketing expenses are expected to exceed 40 billion KRW. Ebest Investment & Securities initially forecasted Com2uS's labor costs to increase from 23.7 billion KRW in the previous quarter to 25.2 billion KRW, but revised it upward to 25.5 billion KRW.

Accordingly, Ebest Investment & Securities maintained a "Buy" rating on Com2uS but lowered the target stock price from 205,000 KRW to 166,000 KRW. The closing price the previous day was 130,200 KRW. Researcher Sung said, "Hundred Years' War is performing worse than expected, and the closed beta test (CBT) schedule for the new title 'Summoners War: Chronicle' (Chronicle) has been postponed from July to September," adding, "The release of Chronicle is also expected to be adjusted from the fourth quarter of this year to the first quarter of next year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.