NCSoft achieved its biggest-ever first-quarter PC sales, marking a clear earnings rebound. The company presented a strategy to deliver continued growth each quarter based on three growth pillars: expanding legacy intellectual property (IP), globally launching new IP and ramping up mobile casual.

NCSoft co-CEO Byung-moo Park (박병무) said on an earnings conference call on Tuesday that the first-quarter results were not a one-off. He said he was confident revenue and operating profit would continue to grow quarter on quarter and year on year each quarter, adding that the company is building a predictable, steadily growing business model.

Lineage Classic hits new daily sales high after Valakas server, draws users in their 20s and 30s

The key driver of the rebound was Lineage Classic. It posted cumulative operating revenue of 192.4 billion won over 90 days after its Feb. 11 launch, far exceeding initial expectations.

Park said the game has been setting new daily sales highs since the opening of the new Valakas server on April 22. He said monthly active users and PC café market share have remained solid three months after launch, and a long run is expected. He also stressed that the user base broadened as large numbers of users in their 20s and 30s joined in addition to the older age group initially anticipated.

On cannibalisation with PC Lineage Remastered, the company said Remastered revenue fell about 30 percent from a year earlier but the impact was limited versus expectations. It said the overall user base and revenue of the Lineage IP expanded instead.

Aion2 has recently seen traffic fall somewhat within the expected range, but the company will seek to bring back returning users through a June event marking six months since launch and the rollout of Season 4. Park said key indicators were much better than Throne and Liberty even though full-scale marketing has not started.

The company will also pursue regional expansion of legacy IP. It is set to start with the Southeast Asia launch of Lineage W on May 27, followed by moves by Lineage M and Lineage2M into China, and a China launch of Aion Mobile being developed by Chengdu Game.

Aion2 to launch globally in third quarter, marketing to ramp up from June Summer Game Fest

The second growth pillar is global expansion of new IP. NCSoft will release Aion2 in North America, South America, Europe and Japan in the third quarter. It has hired former Amazon Games executive Mervin Lee Kwai as head of global publishing, and plans to step up marketing from early June starting with Summer Game Fest.

Chief Financial Officer Won-jun Hong (홍원준) said the company is aiming for large-scale user inflows and high retention through a group of experts specialising in publishing for Western markets, based on its experience with successful MMO launches in South Korea and Taiwan. He said it is targeting a global flagship MMO rather than a one-off hit.

Three additional new IP titles have entered the global testing stage. The open-world shooter Cinder City, the shooter title Time Takers and the subculture title Limit Zero Breakers will undergo internal and external verification and be released sequentially in the second half. Hong said this year marks the full-scale rollout of a strategy targeting new user bases and new regional markets across the PVP, shooter, subculture and MMOFPS genres.

For the pipeline after 2027, the company is developing the Sony IP-based MMO Horizon: Steel Frontiers, its internally developed shooter Bonfire, the subculture title Project AT and the MMO Project R. Park said Sony’s expectations for Horizon: Steel Frontiers are high and the companies are discussing the release schedule and marketing roadmap.

JustPlay to be consolidated in second quarter, iOS capability and first-party data are key

The third growth pillar, the mobile casual business, will expand in scale from the second quarter as results from Germany's JustPlay are consolidated. Hong said JustPlay's first-quarter revenue rose 76 percent from a year earlier and mobile casual revenue will expand meaningfully once consolidation begins in the second quarter.

Park said JustPlay’s core competitiveness lies in holding first-party data and its ability to operate on iOS. He said that as a rewards app, it can keep user acquisition marketing efficiency higher than rivals by holding its own first-party data.

As rivals focus on Android, JustPlay can operate stably on iOS based on an anti-abuse system built over several years. Park forecast that growth accelerated as iOS support ramped up in the fourth quarter of last year, and that the company will grow at least 70 percent year on year on its own without external synergy.

NCSoft said it will develop the mobile casual business not as simple game development but as building a platform ecosystem. It aims to maximise synergy between studios and the platform through a virtuous cycle that organically links ad tech, user acquisition and data analysis. Park stressed that as AI advances and small developers create more games, NCSoft benefits if it has a platform ecosystem.

"High chance of achieving top end of 2.5 trillion won... combined total of about 10 titles in 2027"

Park said there is a high likelihood of achieving the top end of its 2026 revenue guidance of 2.5 trillion won, and that its internal target is much higher. He said operating profit could fluctuate by quarter depending on the timing of performance bonus payments, but he forecast the absolute level of operating profit will continue to level up each quarter.

Park said until now NCSoft was a content company whose results swung widely depending on the success or failure of a game. He stressed that it will become a company with steadily growing revenue and profit that can be forecast.

On growth visibility from next year and beyond, he said about 10 titles including spin-offs and new IP are being readied for release through next year, and that when combined, 2027 can deliver much higher growth than this year. He presented a mid- to long-term target of 5 trillion won in revenue in 2030.