[Click eStock] "NCSoft, Blade & Soul 2 Release Schedule Expected to Delay"

IBK Investment & Securities Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] IBK Investment & Securities maintained a buy rating on NCSoft on the 14th but lowered the target price by 6% from the previous to 1.03 million KRW.

NCSoft is expected to record 559.7 billion KRW in sales and 148.3 billion KRW in operating profit in the second quarter, representing a 4% increase and a 29% decrease respectively compared to the same period last year. With declining sales from existing games and delays in the release of new games, both sales and operating profit are predicted to fall short of market expectations.

Seunghoon Lee, a researcher at IBK Investment & Securities, explained, “Although Lineage 2M was launched in Taiwan and Japan and TricksterM achieved results beyond expectations, the decline in sales of main games mostly offset the additional revenue,” adding, “Profitability will also fall short of consensus due to sales decline despite the removal of special performance bonuses from the first quarter.”

In the third quarter, performance is expected to improve significantly due to large-scale updates of existing games and the release of new games. Lineage M is expected to recover sales as a new class was added and various promotions started with the 4th anniversary update. The new Blade & Soul 2 is likely to have its release schedule strategically decided, as the recently launched Odin achieved great success. Researcher Lee said, “The delay in the release of Blade & Soul 2 is pushing back the expected release dates of upcoming games and will fall short of performance forecasts.”

With more than three visible new games in the pipeline and Korean games recently starting to receive licenses, additional opportunities to enter the Chinese game market are expected from the end of the year. Researcher Lee stated, “Since existing games have entered China through Tencent, expectations for overseas success including China for Lineage 2M and the new Blade & Soul 2 are rising,” adding, “It is necessary to monitor the release of Blade & Soul 2, the future schedules of Aion 2 and Project TL, and whether new projects will be announced.”

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