14 DAY TRIAL // NCsoft is announcing that it has seen strong financial results for the first quarter of 2009, which ended on March 31. The reason for the bounce back for the company, which registered less than stellar results in late 2008, is the launch of its new MMORPG game, Aion which, at the moment, is only available for play in Korea.
The developer has recently been forced to take down one of its MMOs, Tabula Rasa, because it failed to attract the player base necessary to sustain it from a financial point of view. The creator of the game, Richard Garriott, best known as Lord British from Ultima, has filed a suit against NCsoft claiming that the company has terminated his contract abusively in order to limit the profit he could make from his stock options.
Sales were up by an impressive 51% to 107.7 million dollars, while net income reached the equivalent of 27 million, registering a jump of 315%. The new Aion, just released, has generated almost as much revenue as the older Lineage 1 and Lineage 2, which have a significant following in Asia. Aion is slated to be launched in the entire world by the end of 2009 and a beta phase might start soon.
Jaeho Lee, who is the Chief Financial Officer of NCsoft, stated that “Aion has solidified its position as a new growth force without encroaching sales of the Lineage series. Starting with its service in China in Q2, we are ready for a successful launch of this triple-A franchise in Japan, Taiwan, North America and Europe within the second half of the year.”
One of the main strengths of Aion is the look of the game, which is beyond other MMOs like World of Warcraft can offer. The late year release will show us whether there's an audience for the game in the West.