Nexon reported increases across the board during its third quarter, which were all above the company’s outlook for the period.
Its results were driven by its three largest franchises – MapleStory, Dungeon & Fighter, and FC – which collectively delivered ¥108.5 billion ($678.4 million) in revenue, up 24% year-on-year.
The numbers
- Revenue: ¥138.4 billion ($865.4 million), up 17% year-on-year
- Operating income: ¥41.8 billion ($261.3 million), up 11% year-on-year
- Net income: ¥38.1 billion ($238.2 million), flat year-on-year
The highlights
Nexon’s third quarter operating income benefited from higher royalties from FC Online and MapleStory: Idle RPG, which were “more than offset by lower marketing, HR, and cloud costs.”
MapleStory franchise revenue grew 72% year-over-year, setting a new quarterly record and driving most of Nexon’s revenue.
FC achieved double-digit growth, while Dungeon & Fighter revenue declined 33% due to “weaker-than-expected results from the September National Day updates in China.”
Embark Studios’ Arc Raiders has sold over 17 million copies to date. Last month, the third-person shooter launched its Frozen Trail update, which was “successful in reengaging lapsed players and driving incremental unit sales.”
Nexon also announced Project Overkill, a new online RPG set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe. Neople is developing the title, and Tencent will publish it.
As part of Nexon’s ongoing transformation initiative introduced earlier this year, six projects were discontinued in recent months, with “budgets and creative teams redeployed to games with greater commercial viability.”
Nexon also provided an update on AI integration, which is “accelerating across development, localisation, and code review to enable developers to spend more time taking creative risks and validating new ideas.”
“The aim is to create more ambitious, higher-quality games with the teams already in place, not to make the same games at lower cost,” the company clarified. “Nexon’s games are made by people, and that is not changing.”
“Our IP expansion strategy is delivering clear results,” said Nexon president and CEO Junghun Lee.
“Diversified revenue from brand extensions in established franchises like MapleStory, along with FC’s return to growth, and new games like Arc Raiders, strengthens our core business and reduces dependence on any single franchise or market.”
“Additionally, the third quarter reflects the impact of our transformation initiative in guiding decisions on where we invest talented people and capital to build games with strong commercial potential.”