[Digital Today reporter Lee Ho-jung (이호정)] NCSoft returned to an annual operating profit last year after efforts to improve its business structure.

On Monday, NCSoft said it posted consolidated revenue of 1.51 trillion won, operating profit of 16.1 billion won and net profit of 347.4 billion won for last year.

Annual revenue fell 5 percent from a year earlier, but operating profit returned to the black. Net profit surged 269 percent from a year earlier as proceeds from the sale of NC Tower 1 were reflected.

Annual revenue by region was 928.3 billion won in South Korea, 277.5 billion won in Asia and 124.7 billion won in North America and Europe. Royalty revenue was tallied at 176.4 billion won. The share of overseas and royalty revenue was 38 percent of total revenue. By platform, mobile games posted 794.4 billion won and PC online games recorded 430.9 billion won.

PC online games showed particularly strong growth in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter PC game revenue was 168.2 billion won, up 92 percent from the previous quarter and up 80 percent from a year earlier. It was the biggest quarterly figure since 2017. The success of 'Aion2', released in November last year, drove the performance. Total fourth-quarter revenue was 404.2 billion won and operating profit was 3.2 billion won.

NCSoft will focus this year on targeting the global market and releasing new titles. It plans to roll out new titles sequentially, including global service for Aion2, Sinder City, Time Takers and Limit Zero Breakers. It will also move to build a mobile casual platform ecosystem through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

'Lineage Classic', released on Feb. 7, is also drawing early traction. In two days after its release, it recorded 500,000 cumulative users and a peak concurrent user count of 180,000, raising expectations.

The company said, "We have laid the groundwork for future growth through proactive investment," and added, "We will focus on strengthening global competitiveness and enhancing corporate value."