NCsoft's third-quarter earnings announcement revealed its new MMORPG, Aion: Tower of Eternity, played a large part in the Korean publisher's year-over-year profits rising 836 percent. GameSpot has the story.
Quote:
As part of its third-quarter earnings announcement today, NCsoft said that Aion has now sold more than 500,000 units in North America and 470,000 copies in Europe. Aion's popularity propelled NCsoft to another quarter of triple-digit year-over-year gains. The Korean publisher reported revenues today that were up 112 percent to KRW166 billion ($142 million). Net income during the July-September period soared to KRW46.9 billion ($40 million), a whopping 836 percent year-over-year rise.
Good for them, this is the kind of success story that can come from making a truly good game that is widely appreciated. Though, one wonders how much of Aion's success is attributable to this factor...:
At this point I think NCSoft just needs something to bring in some revenue until Guild Wars 2 releases next year, and it seems that at least for the time being they've found it. I think that the removal of Game Guard no doubt helped bring in additional people to the American release of Aion.
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"You shutup, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings if you died or if your mother was eaten by a bear or something." - TheFlyingOrc
Playing it on my main monitor right now. It's fun for the most part.
If you're new to MMO's, stick to WoW. It's better refined, has MUCH more content, and is generally a superior game in all aspects.
If you're like me, a burnt-out WoW veteran who had 5 lvl 80's fully geared, then it's a nice fresh game that'll last you till something more substantial comes along. Like FFXIV or Old Republic, next year.
Oh, and just a heads up: NCSoft's customer service is non-existant. I've had an in-game bug problem, waited 1.5 hours, and instead of help or a GM of any kind, I got an auto-message saying basicly too bad, NCSoft isn't responible for in-game problems caused by bugs. THEN I had an account problem and their website support staff essentially told me to go fuck myself.
Korean MMO's ftl.
__________________ Captain Q.Q. Moore, of the USS Learntoplay. If PC Gaming is dead, does that make me a necrophiliac?
Beta tested the game, played for the first month and hit mid 20's for my characters.Then it turned into grind grind grind for leveling. The game is really geared to grinding and getting PvP kills against the bots that are running rampant in the game. Its really sad. Needless to say, I've canceled my subscription.
My prediction? That short burst of growth revenue is going to hit the toilet in with subscription cancellations in the greater NA region. Its too bad. I liked the game, but without much content in the way of quests after you hit 20, to quests that allow 100 repeats per area (deliver this to so n so in Pandemonium), there just isn't much that draws you in.
