South korea: South Korea's leading online gaming firm Nexon Co. announced a significant decline in its second-quarter net income, reporting a 58 percent drop from the previous year. This downturn is attributed to foreign exchange losses caused by a weak yen.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Nexon's net profit for the April-June period stood at 162.1 billion won (US$117.5 million), a stark contrast to the 350.4 billion won recorded a year ago. The company's regulatory filing highlighted a 17 percent decline in operating profit, which fell to 364.6 billion won, and a 3 percent decrease in sales, totaling 1.15 trillion won.
The company pointed to foreign exchange losses stemming from the yen's depreciation as the primary cause for the sharp decline in net profit. Additionally, the combined sales of Nexon's three major franchises-Dungeon and Fighter, MapleStory, and FC-dropped 13 percent from the previous year. This decrease was mainly due to sluggish sales of Dungeon and Fighter Mobile, which launched in the second quarter of the previous year. The mobile version's weaker-than-expected performance led to a 40 percent drop in the franchise's total revenue, despite a 67 percent increase in sales of its PC edition.
MapleStory, however, showed solid growth during the quarter, with revenue surging 60 percent on-year. The FC franchise also recorded steady sales growth, driven by a recent content update to FC Online 1.
In response to the financial performance, Nexon plans to release several new titles, including ARC Raiders, in the second half of the year. The company also announced a share buyback initiative, with plans to repurchase 169.5 billion won worth of its own shares from Thursday to October 31. This is part of a larger 678 billion-won share buyback plan announced in February. Nexon had already repurchased 339 billion won worth of shares by June and aims to complete the remainder by February next year.