SEOUL, - NCsoft Corp., a major South Korean online and mobile game developer, said Thursday its third-quarter net income plunged 75.8 percent from a year earlier, hit by weak demand for its flagship mobile game series.
Net profit for the July-September period stood at 44 billion won (US$33.6 million) on a consolidated basis, compared with 182.1 billion won from a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Operating profit was 16.5 billion won, down 88.6 percent from a year ago, and sales fell 30 percent on-year to 423.1 billion won.
The game developer attributed disappointing earnings to a decrease in sales of the mobile version of its massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Lineage" series.
NCsoft's mobile game sales slumped 37 percent on-year to 273.8 billion won, and its revenue from computer online games dropped 4 percent to 93.2 billion won.
The company raised 65 percent of total sales in South Korea, followed by 18.5 percent in Asia, 8.3 percent from royalty, and 7.8 percent from North America and Europe.
It plans to unveil new games to hit the market step-by-step starting next year, including shooting game "LLL" and action battle brawler "Battle Crush," at global game exhibition G-Star set to run from Wednesday to Sunday next week.
Source: Yonhap News Agency