Seoul: NCSOFT Corp., a South Korean game developer, announced on Tuesday that it turned to a net loss in the second quarter, primarily due to the appreciation of the Korean won.
According to Yonhap News Agency, NCSOFT reported a net loss of 36 billion won (US$25.8 million) for the April-June period, a significant decline from a profit of 71.1 billion won recorded in the same period last year. Despite the net loss, the company saw a notable increase in operating income, which rose 70.5 percent year-on-year to 15.1 billion won, and a 3.7 percent increase in sales, amounting to 382.4 billion won.
The company attributed the weak bottom line to the stronger Korean won, which negatively impacted the value of its overseas earnings. Nonetheless, both online and PC game sales remained stable during the quarter. Revenue from online game titles slightly increased by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 219 billion won, while PC game sales rose by 6 percent, reaching 91.7 billion won.
Among its popular game titles, Lineage M generated 121.1 billion won in sales, with Lineage 21 following at 48 billion won. Blade and Soul and Guild War 2 contributed 19.5 billion won and 15.8 billion won, respectively.
The South Korean market was the largest contributor to sales, generating 244.8 billion won, followed by other Asian markets with 69.1 billion won, and North America and Europe combined at 26.2 billion won. The total operating expenses for the quarter increased by 2 percent from the previous year, amounting to 367.3 billion won.
NCSOFT expressed its intention to drive new growth by expanding its game portfolio to include titles based on artificial intelligence (AI) and enhancing its research and development efforts.