NCSoft declared 2026 a year of full-scale high growth and set a goal of achieving the top end of its revenue guidance of 2.0 trillion won to 2.5 trillion won. It focused on improving its fundamentals last year through cost efficiency and organisational optimisation, but plans to move into full-scale performance expansion from this year.

NCSoft co-CEO Park Byung-moo (박병무) said on an earnings conference call on Monday that if 2025 was a year of turnaround, this year would mark the start of full-scale high growth. He said the company would reach the top end of its revenue guidance through three pillars: expanding sales from existing in-house intellectual property, global launches of new IP and a full rollout of its mobile casual business.

Aion2 global launch, 5 spin-offs to expand existing IP

The first growth pillar is expanding revenue from existing IP. The company plans to secure additional growth momentum through a global launch in the third quarter, while performance from 'Aion2', released in November last year, will be reflected for the full year in 2026.

NCSoft hired Mervin Lee Kwai, who was in charge of regional franchise leadership at Amazon Games, to strengthen its global publishing capabilities. The company aims to enhance its in-house global publishing and maximise Aion2's performance in global markets.

Park said Aion2's estimated revenue from Jan. 1 to Feb. 9 this year was about 70 billion won. He said sales have held up relatively steadily compared with the typical sharp post-launch decline for MMORPGs. He said Throne and Liberty generated about 150 billion won in revenue at Amazon over three months after its Oct. 1 launch, adding that Aion2's indicators were much better and showing confidence about global revenue.

This year it will release five spin-off titles, including 'Lineage Classic', 'Guild Wars Reforged Mobile', and 'Aion Mobile' from Chinese game company Chengdu Shentui Games. It will also pursue regional expansion, including Lineage W in Southeast Asia, Lineage2M and Lineage M in China, and Throne and Liberty and Lineage W in Russia.

Time Takers, Breakers and Cinder City to diversify new IP

The second pillar is taking new IP into global markets. 'Time Takers', 'Limit Zero Breakers' and 'Cinder City' will hold global closed beta tests in March and within the second quarter, and will be launched sequentially in global markets from the latter part of the second quarter depending on results.

Hong Won-joon (홍원준), chief financial officer at NCSoft, said this year marks the full start of a strategy targeting new user bases and new regional markets in genres including PVP, shooter, subculture and MMOFPS.

Park said the company conducted multiple focus group tests both internally and externally for the three games before running global closed beta tests, and concluded the titles were ready to proceed. He expressed confidence about their launch prospects.

It is also preparing a pipeline of new titles for after 2027. Titles in development include the Horizon IP-based MMO 'Horizon Steel Frontiers', its next-generation in-house shooter 'Bonfire', the subculture title 'Project AT' from external studio Dynamis One Studio, and Dexa Studio's new MMO 'Project R'.

Building a mobile casual platform ecosystem through M&A

The third pillar, the mobile casual business, aims to build a platform ecosystem rather than simply develop games. NCSoft plans to create a virtuous cycle in which adtech, user acquisition, data analytics and the tech layer are organically linked, maximising synergy between individual studios and the platform.

Vietnam's Lehoho and South Korea's Springcomes, acquired late last year, will be reflected in results from the first quarter. Hong said M&A in Europe is also in its final stages and could be reflected in results as early as the second quarter. He said the company aims to achieve meaningful outcomes from this year by converting idle cash into operating assets that can be linked to sizeable revenue and profit.

Park said the mobile casual business is being expanded with a goal of accounting for about one-third of total revenue next year.

NCSoft said it will pursue its business by building a tech platform and ecosystem that users and game developers can use, rather than being a company that continuously makes mobile casual games. Park said that as AI advances and small developers create more games, it becomes better for the company, stressing the strengths of its platform strategy.

"Shift to a predictable company... growth to continue every quarter"

Park said there is a high possibility of achieving the top end of its revenue guidance of 2.5 trillion won. He forecast that with three pillars, the company would keep growing every quarter and also expand year-on-year.

He said the company's share price had risen and fallen depending on whether a game succeeded or failed because it had been a typical content company. He said it would become a company whose revenue and profit continue to grow and can be predicted, and stressed he hopes growth, sustainability and predictability are reflected in the share price valuation.

He said operating profit may fluctuate somewhat by quarter due to incentives for new games, higher marketing costs, higher user acquisition marketing spending to grow the mobile casual business, and amortisation of intangible assets from M&A. He said operating profit levels are basically expected to step up in all quarters.

NCSoft is discussing a plan to publish not only operating profit but also earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITDA, in future earnings releases if the amortisation of intangible assets becomes larger in part due to payments for M&A targets.

Separately, NCSoft announced on Monday that it posted 2025 annual revenue of 1.5069 trillion won, operating profit of 16.1 billion won and net profit of 347.4 billion won. Fourth-quarter revenue was 404.2 billion won, up 12 percent from the previous quarter, and operating profit was 3.2 billion won, returning to profit.