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NCSoft Financials Show Promise, Game Delays

Posted by simoniker on from the real-subscription-numbers dept.

Thanks to GameGossip for its story discussing Korea-originating MMO firm NCSoft's financial results for the first half of 2004. Along with an "operating profit [of] $23 million", specific sales/subscription numbers were announced, a rarity in the MMO world, as the company "reported that Lineage II and City Of Heroes are both doing well, with sales as of the end of June at 86,000 units (Lineage II) and 190,000 units (City Of Heroes) respectively. Meanwhile, as far as active players are concerned, NCsoft reported that Lineage II and [the soon to be cape-friendly] City Of Heroes have 76,000 and 170,000 active players respectively." However, delays to NCSoft's forthcoming titles were also announced, since "Guild Wars has been pushed from Q4 2004 to the first-half of 2005. Meanwhile, [recently re-organized Richard Garriott title] Tabula Rasa has fallen back from Q4 2004 to the second-half of 2005."

6 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. How strange.... by dave-tx · · Score: 3, Funny
    ....I just passed a car (in Austin, TX) that had a "NCSOFT" license plate an hour ago. Wonder who that belongs to.

    --

    >> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"

  2. Or... by bluemeep · · Score: 2, Insightful

    CoH for soloers and FFXI to social folks. I've spent 95% of my time in CoH doing things my own way, while FFXI forced me to either beg my friends to play or join up with often unreliable strangers. Or CoH for people with imagination that dig a healthy character generation and FFXI for folks that don't mind looking and performing exactly like someone else of the same class and level. To each his own, of course.

    1. Re:Or... by Elsebet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      CoH is one of the few MMORPG's where duos or small groups work just as well, if not better than huge groups.

      Time spent in FFXI: ~4 months
      Duo: Warrior & White Mage (Me)
      Level attained playing casually: 16 (almost 17) of ~70

      Time spent in CoH: ~3 months
      Duo: AR/Dev Blaster & Emp/Dark Defender (Me)
      Level attained playing casually: 27 of 50

      Guess which one is still active? :)

      --
      Sacré-bleu! Where is me mama?
  3. Re:caper! {the jumbles} by AliasTheRoot · · Score: 2

    Guild Wars is by a bunch of ex Blizzard folk so the analogy is good. From what i've seen of it, it was already up to CoH's level at E3 and when they finally release it, it will be outstanding.

    I'm betting Tabula Rasa is toast tho.

  4. Re:caper! {the jumbles} by AuMatar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Lineage 2 is written with Korean gamers (the audience of Lineage 1) in mind. It does a lot of things we here in the states find to be very poor game design (the treadmill makes EQ look tame. I believe it took 2 people multui-playing an account for 20 hrs a day over a month to go level 70-75). It won't ever be very popular here in NA, and in Korea its competing with L1, the world's largest MMO.

    --
    I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
  5. Guildwars delayed? by jlink7 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Quote from http://www.guildwars.com/Guildwars.com:

    "What is the expected release date?

    There has been no change in the release window, and we anticipate that Guild Wars will be released in the second half of 2004."

    That was in the official game FAQ, where is this news of the game being delayed coming from?