The Fall of NCSoft... Even the 600,000 Won Level Collapses

New Release 'Blade & Soul 2' Box Office Failure Impact
Users Express Fatigue with Lineage-Style BM... Time to Develop New Content

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] The stock price of NCSoft, which had been falling continuously, has dropped below the 600,000 won mark.

As of 9:40 a.m. on the 13th, NCSoft recorded 597,000 won, down 1.65% (10,000 won) from the previous day. Earlier this year, it had reached an all-time high of 1,048,000 won, but it has fallen by nearly half in less than a year. This is the first time since March 24 of last year that NCSoft's stock price has been in the 500,000 won range.

The box office failure of the newly released Blade & Soul 2 (B&S2) on the 26th of last month negatively impacted the stock price. The securities industry had expected daily sales to reach 3 billion won after release, as the game was based on Blade & Soul, which gained popularity due to its unique martial arts background and differentiated character control methods. However, the original strengths disappeared, and it was released with a payment model similar to Lineage and an auto-hunting-centered gameplay, leading to harsh criticism. Currently, the securities industry estimates B&S2's daily sales to be only around 500 million to 1 billion won.

Despite actively trying to defend the stock price after the unexpected box office failure, the effect was not significant. On the 7th, NCSoft announced it would purchase 300,000 of its own shares for 189.9 billion won. Generally, share buybacks act as a positive factor by reducing the number of circulating shares. Additionally, NCSoft announced it would abandon the core revenue model of B&S2, ‘Yeonggi,’ which was notorious for aggressive monetization. Yeonggi was a paid item that allowed users to gain extra experience points and tradable items, so many users purchased it at great expense. This drastic measure to abandon Yeonggi was intended to win back users' favor. Nevertheless, the stock price defense failed. Since the announcement of the share buyback on the 7th, the stock price has fallen by 4.11%.

There are predictions that if NCSoft does not abandon the Lineage-type business model (BM) in the future, it will fall into further decline. Existing users already predict that ‘Lineage W,’ expected to be released in November, will only induce payments without providing a new experience. Moreover, competing games adopting the Lineage-type BM, such as Kakao Games’ Odin, are being produced in large numbers. If the image continues to worsen, NCSoft will inevitably lose its targeted user base to other companies. According to the mobile data platform Mobile Index, Odin has not dropped from first place in Google Play sales since July 3.

Wi Jeong-hyun, president of the Korea Game Society, said, "NCSoft’s biggest concern is that negative reactions arise no matter what game they release," and explained, "It is not only a problem with B&S2, but most games like Lineage and Trickster M have similar Lineage-type BMs, so users show resistance." He also added, "Instead of pursuing extremely low probability items, they should consider switching to a subscription model," and "It is time to develop games with content that works not only in Korea but also in the global market."

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