Gaming companies have great quarter during pandemic

Korean gaming companies did well in the second quarter as people stayed home during the pandemic and spent their time in the virtual worlds doing battle with online foes and building fantasy lands.

Nexon, which is on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, reported 64.5 billion yen ($604 million) in the second quarter, a record and up 20 percent on year.

Operating profit doubled to 26.7 billion yen on year, but net profit rose only 3 percent to 19.8 billion yen as exchange-rate losses ate away at gains.

Performance was strong across markets, and expectations were exceeded. In Korea, revenue was up 151 percent, while in North America and Europe, it was up 173 percent.

Older title revenue, for names such as MapleStory and Sudden Attack, rose at triple-digit rates.

Netmarble's quarterly net profit jumped 124 percent on year to 85.2 billion won ($71.9 million) in the April to June period. Revenue was up 30.3 percent on year to 685.7 billion won, and operating profit jumped 146.1 percent to 81.7 billion won.

A notable achievement was the proportion of sales generated overseas on titles like The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross, Marvel Contest of Champions and Lineage 2 Revolution. Seventy-five percent of the company's revenue during the second quarter, equivalent to 514.4 billion won, came from outside Korea. Its biggest market was the United States.

“It’s true that the ‘untact’ trend of minimizing contact has worked in favor to the business,” said Netmarble CEO Lee Seung-won during a Wednesday conference call, using the world for non-contact business.

On concerns that the pandemic would cause delays in game development and releases, Lee said he hadn’t seen much impact until now except in a few areas, like recordings of voice actors.

NCSoft was the last among the country’s top three in games to announce quarterly results. According to the company’s public filing on Thursday, its quarterly net profit increased 36 percent on year to 158.4 billion won. Revenue increased 31 percent on year to 538.6 billion won, and operating profit was up as well by 61 percent on year at 209 billion won.

One concern raised by investors was the weaker-than-expected sales of Lineage M and Lineage 2M, NCSoft’s biggest revenue sources. But the company expressed confidence for better performance of both titles in the second half of the year, with a recent update of Lineage M having attracted more users since last month and another update of Lineage 2M expected in the fourth quarter.

The most anticipated event for the rest of the year is the first global release of Lineage 2M. The only foreign market set for the release at the moment is Taiwan, the company said in a Thursday conference call.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]