Nexon posted record half-year revenue, operating profit and net profit, helped by growth in the MapleStory franchise and the success of Arc Raiders. Second-quarter revenue and net profit rose while operating profit fell, but all three beat its own forecasts.

Nexon said on Aug. 13 that second-quarter consolidated revenue rose 2 percent from a year earlier to 1.139 trillion won (121.1 billion yen).

Operating profit for the period fell 17 percent to 294.3 billion won (31.3 billion yen), while net profit rose 77 percent to 278.8 billion won (29.6 billion yen), exceeding its previous forecasts.

With the second-quarter results, first-half cumulative revenue came to 2.5603 trillion won (273.3 billion yen), operating profit to 837.9 billion won (89.4 billion yen) and net profit to 813.7 billion won (86.9 billion yen). From a year earlier, revenue rose 17 percent, operating profit increased 13 percent and net profit climbed 102 percent, all record highs for a half-year period.

Overseas revenue and PC and console platform revenue rose 44 percent and 27 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Second-quarter total revenue for the MapleStory intellectual property rose 63 percent from a year earlier, a quarterly record. Second-quarter revenue for the PC version of MapleStory rose 7 percent in South Korea and in Western markets. MapleStory World revenue rose 123 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter, based on results in South Korea and Taiwan, alongside overseas performance of the mobile game MapleStory Growth.

Arc Raiders, released in October last year, recorded global cumulative sales of 16.3 million copies within 9 months of launch.

Nexon plans to roll out a new lineup from the second half. It will expand service regions for the mobile version of Dave the Diver, introduced in China earlier this year, to global markets including South Korea in September. In the fourth quarter, it plans to launch Mabinogi Mobile in Japan and Dungeon & Fighter Growth. Within the year, it will launch the MMORPG Item-Buff: Overgeared and the fantasy world RPG Azur Promilia.

It also plans sequential releases of internally developed new titles including Dungeon & Fighter Classic, Vindictus: Defying Fate and Nakwon: Last Paradise.

Nexon also plans to pay a special dividend of 3 trillion won in late September.

For third-quarter guidance, it projected revenue of 1.1087 trillion to 1.2253 trillion won (120.7 billion to 133.4 billion yen), operating profit of 207.6 billion to 296.3 billion won (22.6 billion to 32.3 billion yen) and net profit of 167.3 billion to 235.4 billion won (18.2 billion to 25.6 billion yen).

Lee Jung-heon (이정헌), head of Nexon's Japan unit, said, "We posted solid results in the second quarter as well, driven by strong growth in the MapleStory franchise and Arc Raiders' steady contribution." He added, "From the second half, we will diversify the pipeline by expanding new titles across various genres and expanding steady-seller IPs, and we will strengthen growth momentum through major updates to key titles."