NcSoft Q2 Financial Report

[Erowind]

http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx (Download the earnings report if you whant to see it.)

People is basically discussing this everywhere once big changes are expected for Lineage 2 this year (according to the Producer). Many people are speculating that there is a good chance to we change to the same model of Russia, specially as you can see in the balance, the profit of Lineage 1 high skyed after they change to the model (making Linege 2 actually the third profitable game of Nc). The balance also shows how their profit is decresing fast as Aion started to fail badly.

What you guys think?

[Sturmwolf]

I think they are gonna launch Blade and Soul soon :P . On last interview about Blade and Soul, the Producer said they are delaying Blade and Soul launch as not to sabotage the Aion market. IF Aion is failing that badly ( is it really?) then blade and Soul should hit the market.

[Erowind]

I think they are gonna launch Blade and Soul soon :P . On last interview about Blade and Soul, the Producer said they are delaying Blade and Soul launch as not to sabotage the Aion market. IF Aion is failing that badly ( is it really?) then blade and Soul should hit the market.

Yeap it is, not that much because of game design, but because of the repetitive grind + the lack of end game content with infinite grind for armors/weapons and the worst directory ever, the merges they did in Aion servers was the worst planned thing ever. Only now in Korea they are starting to address the Race imbalance problems... Just to point out they merged many server that were dominated by an race with another also dominated by the same race, making things even worse. The thing is many people gone and never came back (me i.e.).

[MrTwig]

Please link where it says that L1 is now F2P....

[Erowind]

Please link where it says that L1 is now F2P....

"Lineage recorded historical high with micro-transaction model after 12 years of service. Aion decreased due to increased inactive users in overseas market."

Page 5 of the report. Once Lineage 1 was the same payment model of Lineage 2 i can only assume they gone F2P, or more likely the same model they use on Lineage 2 in Russia (more like a mix of both models). Still it is something to mention once their graphics show the game sells of Lineage 1 doing 33% of their total sales while Lineage 2 does 19% and Aion 40%... For real, Lineage 1 selling ONLY 7% LESS THEN AION??? Common it would be easy to see why so many people is speculating about changes in the model Lineage 2 addopts atm.

Altought i don't think they changed Lineage 1 for western, this change more likely occured in Korea, there is nothing in the report about where tehy addopted the system, just the huge income of sells since 1st quarter of 2010.

[MrTwig]

You have mis-understood what they are talking about and have made incorrect assumptions (not being mean... just saying).

L1 - when they say "micro-transaction model" they are talking about all the things you can buy beyond the monthly subscription, example NCCoin, shirts, hats, etc etc... that exists in all regions of L1. They are not talking about F2P since L1 is not F2P. Where people are getting the idea of L1 is f2p, is from the conference all at about min 52 where they talk about NCJapan (again, not owned by NCSoft, just licensed) launching L1 as F2P.

Ru.L2 - they get royalty payments from them since they licensed out Lineage 2 to them - meaning that each month ru.l2 has to pay NCSoft X amount of money for the use of the name Lineage 2 regardless of the total sales they have or not have... yes if ru.l2 looses money, they still have to pay NCSoft.

Aion is currently showing a downward trend QoQ (quarter over quarter) which is not good for a game that is less than 1 year old (iirc).

On the conference call, they stated that the micro-transaction was currently be looked at across all game systems that do not already have it since it has shown to a nice revenue maker for them.

Another interesting point is the net income showing a decrease this quarter - the reason is for the "haha fuck you I'm Richard Garrett, I sank your NCNA company with my shitty game TR, but you still have to pay me" lawsuit. Side note, NCK screwed that all up, they should have tied his contract into the success/failure of TR, but they did not... that was the main reason why he won, yes they fired him (and rightfully so) but they were so pissed at their bottom line they fired him out of anger vs waiting to screw him once the options in his contract ran out.

[Erowind]

Well yeah the Richar Garrett thing was something. Aion has so many bad movements on it's direction that meh i won't even bother comment it.

But IF the model was the same, and they were allways been selling of things, for Lineage 1, what changed? Why would only now their numbers increase so much, after 12 years?

By the way the page i pointed has no Royalties included, on page 7 you can see the Royalties included and somehow Lineage 1 score even more the Aion in games sells.

Anyways, most likely people is speculating about the change of model once Nc is losing money and our current producer announced Big changes comming to L2, you do pbb know better his name then i do Twig (i allways get lost once they change here and tehre). Well as some other guy in L2 forums pointed out i really can't see merges as a BIG change, just a normal thing once servers are running really below the expected population. That plus the recent losses of NC in our grounds would obviously lead to some speculation of changes.

And Twing i'm no child i don't bother in being criticized on my toughts.

---------- Post added at 11:00 ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 ----------


I think they are gonna launch Blade and Soul soon :P . On last interview about Blade and Soul, the Producer said they are delaying Blade and Soul launch as not to sabotage the Aion market. IF Aion is failing that badly ( is it really?) then blade and Soul should hit the market.

Trully don't know, altought i can see how Blade & Soul could steal some custumers of Aion, they are somehow different games, and will eventually need to be out on the same market, so competition is inevitable. And Well about Aion, their population is decreasing too fast for a game so new...

[Zairakh]

What i miss is...they updated l2.ru and l2.ko long before than l2.west,their 'big changes' arent nothing than 'ohh,damn,woke up,we are late and ppl is screaming about their money!'.
LineageII free to play,uhm,sound nice,but im afraid that we will risk to get the like-korean system,as twig said,a game based on NCcoin (not much different than 'ebaying' as far they can get almost everything that way) would end up killing the game.
Europeans arent koreans,what in korean market work is not sure that will work also on european one.
Honestly,this last event was really 'korean made' and personally was the worst one i saw from when i play...they way they are takin disappoint me a lot,sincerely...worst they can do yet,its increase the cap,and im afraid that will come with H5...


Aion failed,was expected imo,for me isnt good as is structurated and many servers are already dieyng cause of the fact everyone that starts pick the 'more played race' and they found that had half of their servers totally unbalanced,like 70/30 or so...
This are common question that NC should prevent,but they does not care about their game after they launched and ppl gave them their money.

[MrTwig]

Zair brings up a good point for the Western market the micro-transaction could turn into the bigest ebay fest there is - but it all depends on what you can get. There are some things in Korea that we will never get (net cafe bonus coins for example) since most of the people are playing from their Mom's basement... :)

As for the last event, the 30 min vit potion is nice... but yea the event drops sucked - but again I have the worst luck at events.

[Zairakh]

Im totally against this 'NCcoin' or 'microtransaction' point,it will end up that who more spend,more stronger he get.
Also if not speaking about rare items,epics or so,if someone will to buy 300 vita pops or some sp bonus for earn some uber skills without competition,in west L2 is competition,if they outtake that part or screw it (like its not already enough....) well,they kill the game from my wiew.
And also if they -NC- plan to exclude things like epics or oed's weap what will prevent farmers to focus on those for rmt?
Bad bad idea imo.
Once again,europeans arent koreans. ;)

[Erowind]

Well we finnaly get to it the point of the threat was to actually discuss what cahnges we can expect from NcWest to all of us, but remember stop talk about europeans only because whatever they plan for US will also come for Europe, they treat you all (I'm South American, but yeah im in the same packet) on the same packet.

Trully introduction of a microtransaction system can change the way L2 works,i wouldn't say it would ruin the game, but change, that's for sure. Altought i can see many downsides, there are other points to consider, like the fact that in a microtransaction model, Nc actually will compete with botters itself (of course depends on what they will sell), so may be a way to get them to really start to fight those guys for real.

The ultimate fact for changes imo is that our branch is losing money, that financial report reports a huge loss of money and that isn't something any company likes.

[MrTwig]

well but remember that NCI (the new NCNA) is only showing a loss because of the legal battle...

Let me work on translating what NCK gets for L2 - some of the stuff was very cool and not game changing.

[Huckleberry]

I think micro-transactions (the NC coin stuff) might actually be good. IMO, xping at this point isn't particularly useful other than to get to the next level, to get new skills, to OE skills, get better weapons/armor, etc. Micro-transactions would bring balance.

If Synergy was on par as the rest of the server, I personally think we'd have a lot more fun as an alliance. We'd spend less time xping on our own or in little groups; instead, we would actually focus on Oly (getting heroes), raidbosses/uberquests/instanced dungeons, sieges, and PvP. At this point, we don't need to learn our characters or their capabilities. PvE wouldn't be so much a grind, but a means to farm for top gear or accomplish specific goals...which would bring us back to PvP for hunting grounds (what many reminisce and think was so fun back in Prelude/Chronicle1 when you had to PK people to get your quest items back in starter towns).

I'd assume we wouldn't be able to buy boss jewels, top gear, etc...but if we could buy territory-war type jewels, low/mid grade armors and weapons, attribute stones/crystals, etc., I think it would definitely make the game more interesting. Obviously, they'd still have to find a certain balance between micro-transactions and the in-game experience--but I don't think it'd be that hard. And I don't think it would take away from the experience of the game for the existing subscriber base.

Microtransactions could also bring personalizations to your character (new skins, unique items, etc.), which I think is sorely needed in this game.

And those that love PvE...can still do it whenever they want.

[Zairakh]

The PvP aspect of L2 is dyieng by his own due to NC policy,who achieve highest lvls does not feel to risk their xp,who does not have high lvls prefeer gain exp than loose it...so NC made spots like rift or delusion where u can exp in safe zone with 0% to meet enemies or other players that might you PvP with.
Now it happens only on rare cases,in the new spots,maybe cause opponents dont have Pr,but its more 'flash gank' than mass fight,also most of the tactics now use to train your enemy by making them have mobs on while you 2/3 shot with over elemented weaps...

About microtransaction,again,it would just unbalance the game more,who can spend lot of € on their toon and who cannot or who just dont cause prefeer earn what he can in the right way the game offer,this will change the game,i think,but depend how...honestly im not trusting Nc soft policy so much as now....

[Huckleberry]

I hear you Zai. But I think NC killed off the PvP aspect because the game was so grind intensive, that's why they had to offer safe pve zones. So by making it less grind intensive, I'm hoping it will bring mass PvP back. I guess I'm looking at the point where everyone is max level...so grinding is of no use.

As for micro transactions...L2 already benefits those who bot and e-bay illegally...that's why it's unbalanced now. I don't think legal micro transactions can make it more unbalanced since it won't offer any of the top gear, boss jewels, etc. The top "pros" won't be able to take advantage of micro transactions in a way to become even more uber (at least that would be my hope). And those who want to "earn what [they] can in the right way" can still do so, just like we do now.

I've been really happy with how Eximius accomplishes its goals and takes care of its business. I would just like to see more parity in a game that is PvP-oriented. It's nice to see a "David" finally slay a "Goliath." But 99% of the time, Goliath wins. I'd rather see things even out as much as possible.