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NCsoft expects China gains

Jan. 13, 2012 - 18:41 By Korea Herald
HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― NCsoft Corp., a leading online game developer in Korea, will likely see progress in its China business this year thanks to the expected relaunch of its two best-selling online games in China, JP Morgan said Friday.

NCsoft is an online gaming company with a focus on the massively multiplayer online role-playing game genre. Its three key MMORPG games, Lineage, Lineage II and Aion account for more than 90 percent of the company’s total revenue.

The likely relaunch of Lineage and Lineage II in China this year will help boost NCsoft’s business in the world’s largest online gaming market, the investment bank said.

Tencent Holdings Ltd., China’s No. 1 Internet company by revenue, signed an agreement last year to publish the “Lineage”

series. Tencent is widely known for running the world’s third-largest instant messenger program QQ.

Lineage and Lineage II were previously run in China by Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd., a Shanghai-based operator of online games. Shanda had earlier announced the termination of its service of the Lineage series.

“As Tencent has an impeccable track record in publishing games in China, we expect this could lead to the creation of another meaningful cash flow for NCsoft going forward,” said Chang Sung-min, a JP Morgan analyst.

“With the help of Tencent, the dominant force in Chinese online game market, NCsoft is expecting to create a meaningful revenue stream from the two existing games this year.”

NCsoft saw its third-quarter income plunge 29 percent from a year earlier on lower revenues from overseas markets. Net profit reached 27.88 billion won ($24.92 million) in the July-September period, compared with 39.5 billion won a year ago.