Guild Wars 2

This may interest some people but not everyone. Seen this posted and wanted to share it.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83010-ncsoft-q1-earnings-report-we-are-preparing-an-expansion-pack/#entry2201753

Profit Earnings Release
http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx#none

NCsoft’s latest financials are out, and show a 49 per cent fall in net income on last quarter, but a 322 per cent rise year on year. Sales follow the same pattern, down 51 per cent on the last quarter, but up 31 per cent on last year.

Q1 sales were ?184.9 million or $166.3m (£108.2m), while net income for the same period stood at ?52.3m or $47.1m (£30.6m).

Korea remained NCsoft’s biggest market with 64 per cent of sales, up from 43 per cent last quarter. North America’s share fell from 25 per cent to 13 per cent, while Europe fell from 18 per cent to 8 per cent. The company’s biggest seller for Q1 2013 was Lineage 1, but Guild Wars 2 still maintained a 21 per cent share.

NCsoft’s managing director, Nah Seong Chan, also hinted during the earnings call that the company was planning to address falling Guild Wars 2 sales with a new expansion pack.

“In terms of box sales and microtransactions are still very strong, and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring… We are looking to the performance of the game and then we will decide what will be the best time to do the launch.”

Unfortunately developer ArenaNet doesn’t appear to have got the memo, with director Colin Johanson saying as recently as March that none were currently planned.

“Expansions are definitely something that we’ll potentially look at in the future, but we don’t have a timetable on it. We’re open to it, but I think our major focus as a studio is making the living world concept as strong as possibly can for the players that we’ve got.”

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-13-ncsoft-profits-up-yoy-but-down-on-last-quarter

Interesting. Too bad the title isn’t “Possible Expansion”

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.

Also the EB staff told me they aren’t getting anymore GW2 copies in due to the lack of interest they’ve been seeing in their store for the game..

Well GG Gw2 expansions. It was a nice attempt to run with you.

Dante.1508:

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.
..

Yeah, sales for every other product in the world at least double in January… because everyone has so much money to spend…

So Lineage I and this Baseball team mentioned in the report.

I don’t know anything about Lineage I except it came out in the late 90s and no one really cares about it yet per quarter it somehow generates more money then GW2 did in it’s launch quarter.

Instead of making wow clones all developers should make Lineage I clones and make ridiculous cash on dinosaur game no one cares about far into the future with profits fiercely rising.

The baseball team seems to be the big issue and signing up new players. I’m surprised it takes so much money to sign up new players to a baseball team.

I thought PC game sales in general were down.

Gee, looks like this thread will need to be merged into the main thread on this. That’s either the third or fourth.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/GW2-expansion-1Q-Ncsoft-Conference-Call-merged/2009883

Stego.3148:

So Lineage I and this Baseball team mentioned in the report.

I don’t know anything about Lineage I except it came out in the late 90s and no one really cares about it yet per quarter it somehow generates more money then GW2 did in it’s launch quarter.

Instead of making wow clones all developers should make Lineage I clones and make ridiculous cash on dinosaur game no one cares about far into the future with profits fiercely rising.

The baseball team seems to be the big issue and signing up new players. I’m surprised it takes so much money to sign up new players to a baseball team.

Lineage was South Korea’s WoW, the first really big MMO. After 15 or so years they’ve retained a very devoted player base who have invested a lot of time into their characters and bloodclans. The introduction of a cash item shop boosted sales by nearly 50% back at the end of 2009. Nearly 96% of Lineage sales come from South Korea.

As for their professional baseball team. I think this is what the main company thinks is good advertising. Overseas, companies don’t slap names on stadiums, they slap them on teams.

PC game sales in general ARE down, partly because PC hardware sales are down, partly because a lot of new off-the-shelf PCs come with Windows 8 now and everyone loves to hate on Windows 8/Metro.

Spoilers: Unless you’re WoW, sales almost always drop after release. That doesn’t mean the game is dying. Anet/NCSoft made a big investment in GW2 and they aren’t going to just pull the plug, especially not after selling a million copies at release.

They knew with a B2P plus cash shop that the box sales would drop off after launch and holliday season and transition into primarily cash shop. Coincidentally that’s about the time when all the various sales and Gem store bait started coming out every 2 weeks.

About 3 hours until the next mad rush for Gems.

If I were Korean-Boss-Dude I´d be thanking my ancestors on my knees, daily, that people are still willing and ABLE to spend cash on Internet pixels instead of, for instance FOOD.

This pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Thanks for the info.

Behellagh.1468:

They knew with a B2P plus cash shop that the box sales would drop off after launch and holliday season and transition into primarily cash shop. Coincidentally that’s about the time when all the various sales and Gem store bait started coming out every 2 weeks.

About 3 hours until the next mad rush for Gems.

No company can sustain rapid growth indefinitely, there are going to be ups and downs, and for the most part they can be anticipated. The fourth quarter 2012 includes the period immediately after GW2’s release, when they sold about 1.5 to 2 million boxes, in addition to the pre-sales from Q3.

Five or six months after release, of course the game isn’t going to sell as quickly… also people have less money to spend in January because of bills from Christmas spending, it’s winter in the northern hemisphere so their priorities are changing, and people, in the US at least, are waiting for April/May when they get their tax return money to make major or entertainment-based purchases. So spending overall goes down in Q1.

It’s pretty much going as expected, GW2 sold well over expectations and the cash shop is doing well. Please resume your normal “the game is dying” complaints.

Dante.1508:

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.

Also the EB staff told me they aren’t getting anymore GW2 copies in due to the lack of interest they’ve been seeing in their store for the game..

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

RoRo.8270:

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

According to this report Lineage 1 does that easily and is almost twice as old as WoW (15 years) in 2 1/2 D perspective and is increasing rapidly in profits quarterly making more profits per quarter then major game and MMO Launches.

tolunart.2095:

Behellagh.1468:

They knew with a B2P plus cash shop that the box sales would drop off after launch and holliday season and transition into primarily cash shop. Coincidentally that’s about the time when all the various sales and Gem store bait started coming out every 2 weeks.

About 3 hours until the next mad rush for Gems.

No company can sustain rapid growth indefinitely, there are going to be ups and downs, and for the most part they can be anticipated. The fourth quarter 2012 includes the period immediately after GW2’s release, when they sold about 1.5 to 2 million boxes, in addition to the pre-sales from Q3.

Five or six months after release, of course the game isn’t going to sell as quickly… also people have less money to spend in January because of bills from Christmas spending, it’s winter in the northern hemisphere so their priorities are changing, and people, in the US at least, are waiting for April/May when they get their tax return money to make major or entertainment-based purchases. So spending overall goes down in Q1.

It’s pretty much going as expected, GW2 sold well over expectations and the cash shop is doing well. Please resume your normal “the game is dying” complaints.

How you draw that conclusion. All he said is Anet stops making money from box sales and turn to cash shop for their profit.

Stego.3148:

RoRo.8270:

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

According to this report Lineage 1 does that easily and is almost twice as old as WoW (15 years) in 2 1/2 D perspective and is increasing rapidly in profits quarterly making more profits per quarter then major game and MMO Launches.

Lineage is like the asian version of wow. The game that start it all for asians.

Lineage 1 is the number 1 game of all time. With it’s increasing quarterly profits it will shortly in the future generate the most quartely profits of any mmo of all time and then move forward to vastly shatter and exceed that record up to 2050-60 where it’s loyal fan base starts to die of old age.

tolunart.2095:

people, in the US at least, are waiting for April/May when they get their tax return money to make major or entertainment-based purchases.

I live in Australia and i don’t think there’s a single person here who would count a $59 Videogame as a major entertainment based purchases

going out to the movies buying a single 3D ticket costs $24 over here!
Are Americans really that poor and when will the $5 minimum wage be increased?
Is the Rich vs Poor disparity in America getting worse?
Videogames are now a luxury item?

Stego.3148:

I don’t know anything about Lineage I except it came out in the late 90s and no one really cares about it yet per quarter it somehow generates more money then GW2 did in it’s launch quarter.

Lineage is big in Korea.

The market in Asia and the market in the USA are VERY different in terms of what people go for and what kinds of demographics are gamers. US gamers are actually older. We’re mostly late 20s to early 40s. And in the US, women are now the primary purchasers of video games (overall), and not as gifts but for themselves.

In Asia its more youth culture still, but ALSO has a strong ‘professional E-sport angle’ (I’ve seen the national Star Craft team in a team photo on the side of a city bus in Seoul).

Games we have never heard of (unless you get super geeky following this stuff) are HUGE in Asia. And I suspect some of the games we love they have very low awareness of.

NCSoft and Perfect World are ‘unusual’ as companies that have managed to bridge the gap for online games, the same way that when I was a kid, Nintendo first managed to do for console games (the 1980s BTW, when I was in high school).

But not every game translates. You can go play the english version of Lineage (or could last time I checked a few years back). But one almost wonders why…

And I still have my doubts about WoW in Asia. When I’ve gone there nobody I’ve met plays it – though that’s anecdotal.

Oh and yeah, if you’re talking real-life baseball… that takes HUGE investments on all angles. If NCSoft owns a RL baseball team, that kind of concerns me. Baseball teams make money hand over fist, but they consume it just as fast half the time – and managing one takes a LOT of focus that can get in the way of other priorities.

Kichwas.7152:

…But not every game translates. You can go play the english version of Lineage (or could last time I checked a few years back). But one almost wonders why…

And I still have my doubts about WoW in Asia. When I’ve gone there nobody I’ve met plays it – though that’s anecdotal.

Oh and yeah, if you’re talking real-life baseball… that takes HUGE investments on all angles. If NCSoft owns a RL baseball team, that kind of concerns me. Baseball teams make money hand over fist, but they consume it just as fast half the time – and managing one takes a LOT of focus that can get in the way of other priorities…

Surprised a 15 year old game can match the sales a massively anticipated game can make at launch no matter what region. I’d say from my life in the US Diablo 2 would come closest but i don’t know many that play it period. I’ve managed maybe 4 times a 2-6 month play period in the last decade, and I don’t think D2 sales come close and aren’t steadily rising in profits ( I’m aware it’s not really an MMO but I have friends that I have tried to get to play it on my little revivals of it and some say their eyes can’t even process the graphics and see things on the screen.)

VidGhost.3215:

tolunart.2095:

people, in the US at least, are waiting for April/May when they get their tax return money to make major or entertainment-based purchases.

I live in Australia and i don’t think there’s a single person here who would count a $59 Videogame as a major entertainment based purchases

going out to the movies buying a single 3D ticket costs $24 over here!
Are Americans really that poor and when will the $5 minimum wage be increased?
Is the Rich vs Poor disparity in America getting worse?
Videogames are now a luxury item?

major OR entertainment

Videogames always were a luxury item. They do not provide food, shelter, or any other necessity. People like them.

My point is, in January a lot of people have more bills than they can easily deal with and know that they have money coming from tax returns, so they put off a lot of purchases until later. Thus it’s not a surprise to anyone at a video game company that their sales would drop a bit.

I dont’ even know what people are talking about bills/holiday/tax return. I just think it as Anet stop making money from box sales and most people that want to buy GW2 already bought GW2.

Stego.3148:

RoRo.8270:

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

According to this report Lineage 1 does that easily and is almost twice as old as WoW (15 years) in 2 1/2 D perspective and is increasing rapidly in profits quarterly making more profits per quarter then major game and MMO Launches.

Those are sales numbers not profits. NCSOFT doesn’t break down profits by game, just sales.

laokoko.7403:

I dont’ even know what people are talking about bills/holiday/tax return. I just think it as Anet stop making money from box sales and most people that want to buy GW2 already bought GW2.

Because new game sales peak at release and their first holiday season (given as gifts). NCSOFT is aware of this and braced the stock analysts but telling them to expect 1Q numbers for GW2 to be sharply down. Nobody should read into the sales decline that GW2 is in trouble.

Heck it was their 2nd leading game in sales, even beating out Breast & Skin (Blade & Soul).

RoRo.8270:

Dante.1508:

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.

Also the EB staff told me they aren’t getting anymore GW2 copies in due to the lack of interest they’ve been seeing in their store for the game..

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

Actually WoW came out 9 years ago, but Mists of Pandaria came out a month after Guild Wars 2 did. WoW is not a game…it’s a franchise. Mists of Pandaria is a product. That’s what’s still selling.

Vayne.8563:

RoRo.8270:

Dante.1508:

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.

Also the EB staff told me they aren’t getting anymore GW2 copies in due to the lack of interest they’ve been seeing in their store for the game..

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

Actually WoW came out 9 years ago, but Mists of Pandaria came out a month after Guild Wars 2 did. WoW is not a game…it’s a franchise. Mists of Pandaria is a product. That’s what’s still selling.

No WoW is a service with a subscription fee like cable. 8 million x $15 × 12 is $1.4 billion a year in sales. Different payment plans in Asia plus bulk subscription discounts would take that down to what, an even billion? Good thing they aren’t paid in cash, they would go broke storing all that money.

Edit: According to this site

http://www.gamenote.com/rank_ongame/

WoW is currently the 12th most popular game last week in Korea, 5th in MMORPGs with Lineage, Blade & Soul, Aion and ArcheAge beating it.

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne.8563:

RoRo.8270:

Dante.1508:

Wow sales down by 31% after Christmas that to me is not a good sign.

Also the EB staff told me they aren’t getting anymore GW2 copies in due to the lack of interest they’ve been seeing in their store for the game..

WoW came out what 9 years ago? They are still raking in huge profits I would like to see any other game do this

Actually WoW came out 9 years ago, but Mists of Pandaria came out a month after Guild Wars 2 did. WoW is not a game…it’s a franchise. Mists of Pandaria is a product. That’s what’s still selling.

No WoW is a service with a subscription fee like cable. 8 million x $15 × 12 is $1.4 billion a year in sales. Different payment plans in Asia plus bulk subscription discounts would take that down to what, an even billion? Good thing they aren’t paid in cash, they would go broke storing all that money.

Let me put it a different way. If WoW hadn’t come out with regular expansions, WoW wouldn’t have the subscribers it does. People come back for those expansions. They jumped up to 10 million from 9.1 million when MoP came out. Now they’re down lower than ever, or at least to the lowest level they’ve been in many years.

Yes, WoW itself is a service, but the thing that keeps people using that service over the years is the number of expansions.

Hi everyone,

Please refer to this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/GW2-expansion-1Q-Ncsoft-Conference-Call-merged/first where the community is discussing this.

Thanks for your understanding.
This thread is closed.