NCSoft Drifting Away from Santa... The Key Is 'Gameplay'

NCSoft, Which Rode Last Year's Santa Rally
"Must Develop New IP"

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] While game stocks are showing a Santa rally ahead of Christmas, only NCSoft remains sluggish. A Santa rally refers to the phenomenon where stock prices rise around Christmas. Although the securities industry has a positive outlook for NCSoft next year, experts analyze that stock price recovery will be difficult unless consumer trust is regained.

According to the Korea Exchange on the 24th, NCSoft fell 2.09% during December 20-23, just before Christmas. As of 9:38 a.m. that day, it slightly rebounded by 0.99% (6,000 KRW) from the previous day to record 662,000 KRW. Meanwhile, other game stocks rebounded along with favorable news about non-fungible tokens (NFT) and Play to Earn (P2E). During the same period, Com2uS Holdings, Wemade, Kakao Games, and Com2uS rose 14.04%, 10.98%, 3.46%, and 3.32%, respectively.

This is the exact opposite trend from last year. Last year, amid concerns about the COVID-19 variant virus and the pandemic, game stocks were sluggish, but only NCSoft experienced a Santa rally. From December 21-24 last year, NCSoft rose 3.94%. At that time, its stock price reached 897,000 KRW. During the same period, Com2uS Holdings (then Gamevil), Kakao Games, and Com2uS fell 4.25%, 2.37%, and 1.37%, respectively, while Wemade only rose 0.68%.

Last year, NCSoft was one of the most watched stocks in the market. NCSoft recorded an all-time high performance with operating profit increasing 72% year-on-year to 824.8 billion KRW. Additionally, expectations were rising for new releases this year such as TricksterM and Blade & Soul 2.

The securities industry still overvalues NCSoft. Among eight securities firms that evaluated NCSoft this month, six set target prices above 1,000,000 KRW. KB Securities and Samsung Securities, which set target prices below 1,000,000 KRW, proposed 930,000 KRW and 900,000 KRW, respectively, which are still quite high. Securities firms are betting on the continued success of ‘Lineage W,’ released on the 7th of last month, through next year, as well as new titles based on NFT and P2E.

However, noticeable stock price recovery seems difficult without regaining gamers’ trust. Experts point out that creating games that gamers can enjoy is a priority over formats like NFT and P2E. Wi Jeong-hyun, president of the Korea Game Society, said, “The destiny of content companies is to develop new intellectual property (IP). If existing content is reused through NFT and P2E, it could be harmful rather than restoring consumer trust.”

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