NCSoft R&D center in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province (NCSoft)

NCSoft, a major South Korean game developer, said Monday its operating profit decreased 75 percent from a year earlier on sluggish sales.

Operating profit for the April-June period came to 8.8 billion won ($6.4 million), compared with 35.3 billion won a year ago, and sales fell 16.2 percent on-year to 368.9 billion won, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Net profit for the period, however, jumped 132.8 percent on-year to 71.1 billion won thanks to favorable currency exchange rates, according to the company.

Market watchers expected NCSoft to post an operating loss, but the company said it was able to post an operating profit thanks to its cost-cutting efforts, including labor costs.

The Korean company has been laying off some of its staff and pushing for a spinoff of some of its organizations as part of efforts to overcome its management crisis.

In detail, NCSoft's mobile game sales dropped 27 percent on-year to 218.2 billion won in the second quarter, and revenue from PC games edged down 2 percent to 86.2 billion won.

By region, the company raised 65.2 percent of its total sales in South Korea, 15.4 percent in Asia, and 9.2 percent in North America and Europe.

In a conference call, NCSoft's chief financial officer, Hong Won-jun, said the company plans to start global service of its latest massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) title, Throne and Liberty, in September.

It also plans to release a new role-playing game title, Hoyeon, in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan on Aug. 28, and launch Blade & Soul 2 in China and Lineage2M, a mobile MMORPG, in Southeast Asia later this year.

To secure future growth engines, NCSoft is also developing blockbuster titles to be released next year, and new MMORPGs based on a global IP for after 2026, Hong said.

The company is also working to diversify its game lineup by acquiring or investing in global game companies, he added.

Last week, the company said it made a seed investment of $3.5 million in Swedish game developer Moon Rover Games. (Yonhap)